Professor Kurt Buhring

Saint Mary's College

Religious Studies 352

"Religion and Politics"

Are religion and science in conflict with one another, or should we understand each discipline simply to be asking different questions, using its own method and language? Perhaps religion and science are actually most fruitfully understood as two complementary ways of thinking about the world that have much to learn from one another through encounter?

This course explores the relationship between religion and science, currently and historically, through an examination of various intersections of the two disciplines. Selected topics to be addressed will include: the origins and development of the universe and our planet; who we are as human beings biologically, psychologically, and theologically; and environmental ethics and bioethics. Through these explorations we will seek to come to a richer understanding of the interplay of religion and science and more nuanced conceptions of God, humanity, and the universe.