The Persistence of Faith: Scientific and Theological Perspectives

Public Lecture given by Prof. David Fergusson

Abstract

Almost all the leading Christian theologians have regarded religion as a natural phenomenon evident in every society. Though their assessments of the value of a sensus divinitatis vary, this assumption about the rootedness of religion in our human condition is pervasive. As a ‘natural’ phenomenon, religion is thus available for description and explanation by both the natural and social sciences. In this lecture, I consider a possible tension between accounts that affirm religion as integral to our constitution and those that suggest it will disappear or be diminished under the conditions of modernity. In favouring theories that suggest a refraction rather than a disappearance of religion, I return to an evaluation of earlier theological accounts of this human phenomenon.

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