Need good resource - Catholic perspective of science and faith

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I am looking for a friend for a good resource that presents the Catholic Church’s position on the relationship between science-scripture-faith. He is a Christian and a scientist, dissatisfied with the Nye-Ham recent debate. So it can be fairly detailed.
I also could use a layman resource, since these things are bubbling up in my 8th grade religion class.
Thanks!
John
 
RTR said:
I am looking for a friend for a good resource that presents the Catholic Church’s position on the relationship between science-scripture-faith. He is a Christian and a scientist, dissatisfied with the Nye-Ham recent debate. So it can be fairly detailed.
I also could use a layman resource, since these things are bubbling up in my 8th grade religion class.
Thanks!
John
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Try “Fides et Ratio” by Pope John Paul II. Also Humani Generis by Pope Pius XII.
 
RTR said:
I am looking for a friend for a good resource that presents the Catholic Church’s position on the relationship between science-scripture-faith. He is a Christian and a scientist, dissatisfied with the Nye-Ham recent debate. So it can be fairly detailed.
I also could use a layman resource, since these things are bubbling up in my 8th grade religion class.
Thanks!
John
Click to expand...
This is an amazing letter from John Paul II on the relationship between Theology and Science. It is the greatest thing I have ever read on this relationship. It is short and not difficult to understand but deep of great insights.

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne_en.html
 
Joe_5859 said:
In addition to Fides et Ratio (which is great), here’s another good resource:

Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge by Christopher T. Baglow

It’s written for a high school/college audience, so that would probably be better for your scientist friend than for the 8th graders.
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Christorpher Baglow is great I’ve been blessed to here this guy lecture on a few occasions. I would strongly recommend reading what he has written.
 
RTR said:
I am looking for a friend for a good resource that presents the Catholic Church’s position on the relationship between science-scripture-faith. He is a Christian and a scientist, dissatisfied with the Nye-Ham recent debate. So it can be fairly detailed.
I also could use a layman resource, since these things are bubbling up in my 8th grade religion class.
Thanks!
John
Click to expand...
If you are into physics, “New proofs for the existence of God” by Father Robert Spitzer is excellent.
 
Stephen Barr is a Catholic physicist. I haven’t read him, but I’ve heard good things about his book Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.

The Science Before Science is a book by Anthony Rizzi, another Catholic physicist. Probably more philosophical than Barr’s book. I wouldn’t regard it as the best presentation of Thomism, but it is not too bad.

Stanley Jaki was a Catholic priest/theologian and scientist who was quite prolific. His books are largely out of print, but I’ve heard good things about them.
 
RTR said:
I am looking for a friend for a good resource that presents the Catholic Church’s position on the relationship between science-scripture-faith. He is a Christian and a scientist, dissatisfied with the Nye-Ham recent debate. So it can be fairly detailed.
I also could use a layman resource, since these things are bubbling up in my 8th grade religion class.
Thanks!
John
Click to expand...
Fr. Jaki’s Book (a collection of essays), “The Limits of a Limitless Science” is good as is the previously recommended book by Stephen Barr. I have a blog, Reflections of a Catholic Scientist that covers some topics, and also a website for an adult education course I gave on Science and the Church
 
There is also Wolfgang Smith, who has written a number of books on the topic. He is more comfortable with intelligent design than I am, but he is a talented quantum physicist and has some interesting insights in that realm.
 
It is wonderful to see Anselm33 back posting–welcome–I’m still reading your freewill comments, bless you. I’ve been afraid you were offended by our distraction in your Surprised By Joy thread in the Book Club Group Inklings, and I’m still hoping you’ll comment further. We really need a better thread testifying about Why are We Christians/Catholics, to counterbalance such disappointing books by Thomas Groome, William O’Malley, and K&M Ryan. Doesn’t it make you wonder if a new Index would be beneficial? I think that’s another thread that would be effective here.
 
A thought on the faith of the scientist

“The scientist’s condition as a sentinel in the modern world, as one who is the first to glimpse the enormous complexity together with the marvellous harmony of reality, makes him a privileged witness of the plausibility of religion, a man capable of showing how the admission of transcendence, far from harming the autonomy and the ends of research, rather stimulates it to continually surpass itself in an experience of self-transcendence which reveals the human mystery”.
  • Pope John Paul II, 7/17/85.
 
Which science: astronomy, physics, medicine, biology, zoology, chemistry, archeology, psychology, ect?

Here is a list of links and resources from the Vatican’s Observatory web-site:
Faith and Science

Catholic Perspectives

Last modified: 16 Apr 98.
From Pope John Paul II:

A thought on the faith of the scientist
Faith can never contradict reason: The Pope on Galileo.
Knowledge of God and nature: Physics, Philosophy and Theology.
Science and faith in the search for truth
Study the world to know man
Servants of the truth
Science and Religion can renew Culture
Integrate study and research in a wider frame of reference
Proofs for God’s existence
Science and Human Values
Christian faith sees science as good in itself
Scientists and God
The Value of Cosmology
Human person, the reason for all scientific research
Science serves humanity only when it is joined to conscience
The question of evolution
Reconciling Old Lovers: John Paul II on Science and Faith
Evolution and the Pope (from Catholic Dossier)
Other sources

Science and Technology in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
St. Augustine: Speaking of science
‘God and Science’. A paper by Jacques Maritain.
The Biblical Basis of Western Science - Stanley L. Jaki OSB (from Crisis magazine)(currently unavailable)
The Bible and Science by Stanley L. Jaki
A review (1)
Review (2) (currently unavailable)
Ancient Martian Life: Religious Implications C.J. Corbally
Evolution: an essay by George S. Johnston (CICI)
Darwin Under the Microscope (Michael Behe)
The Galileo Affair (from CICI)
The Cross and the Rain Forest (currently unavailable)
Embracing Einstein
The Jesuits and the Sciences
ITEST: includes abstracts of articles and papers.
Vatican Observatory: includes a list of publications.
Other interesting Christian resources

Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
SCI CHR-L: The Science and Christianity Mailing List
Science-Spirit
Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Galileo I and II
The star of Bethlehem I and II

cco.caltech.edu/%7Enmcenter/sci-faith.html
 
eschator83 said:
It is wonderful to see Anselm33 back posting–welcome–I’m still reading your freewill comments, bless you. I’ve been afraid you were offended by our distraction in your Surprised By Joy thread in the Book Club Group Inklings, and I’m still hoping you’ll comment further. We really need a better thread testifying about Why are We Christians/Catholics, to counterbalance such disappointing books by Thomas Groome, William O’Malley, and K&M Ryan. Doesn’t it make you wonder if a new Index would be beneficial? I think that’s another thread that would be effective here.
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Many thanks for your kind words–I’ve been busy with my blog, Reflections of a Catholic Scientist
I have one post in that blog on my conversion process, “Top Down to Jesus”.
I’m not familiar with the authors you’ve cited, Groome, O’Malley, Ryan… but I would respectfully disagree with you about the notion of an Index. We have to be content to let people come to the truth by their own devices. There are Catholics in authority whom I would not want to dictate what I could or couldn’t read… And actually, you have to read those with whom you disagree in order to be able to counter their arguments. I disagree most wholeheartedly with 98% of what Richard Dawkins has written, but I’ve read two of his books in order to be able to refute his arguments against the faithful.
 
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