Author:

Keywords:

Science-Religion, Methodology

Abstract:

This paper intends an analysis of the modes of relationship between science and religion, with specific reference to the epistemic and cultural presuppositions that determine the way these modes are conceived and constructed. With Ian G. Barbour’s typology of the relationship as a methodological framework, the paper will examine how attempts at effecting particular modes of engagement between the two domains either succumb to the methodological and epistemological temptation mentioned above or deliberately seek the epistemological and ontological subordination of the other discipline. As development in the area of a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship has rendered Barbour’s typology inadequate, a broader and more flexible conceptual framework within which to construct the relationship will be explored. This will take the form of a concise account of three modes of relation responsive to contemporary notions of culture and rationality.