A Quaker Astronomer Reflects

A Quaker Astronomer Reflects
Author: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Publisher: Interactive Publications
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2013-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1922120456

World renowned astronomer and Quaker Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on the big issues confronting scientists who also have a strong spiritual belief system. How can the principles of science be reconciled with the faith required by religion? Does scientific investigation call into question the givens of religion? While specific to her Quaker beliefs, Burnell's reflections apply to many other religions as well. This is the 2013 James Backhouse Lecture Series, sponsored by the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia.

A Quaker Astronomer Reflects

A Quaker Astronomer Reflects
Author: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2013-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780369317193

Can a scientist also be religious? How, and with what limitations? World renowned astronomer and Quaker Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on the big issues confronting scientists who also have a strong spiritual belief system. How can the principles of science be reconciled with the faith required by religion? Does scientific investigation call into question the givens of religion? While specific to her Quaker beliefs, Burnell's reflections apply to many other religions as well. This is the 2013 James Backhouse Lecture Series, sponsored by the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia. This lecture describes astronomers' current understanding of the Universe we live in and shows how the lecturer combines her Quakerism and her science.

Creating Hope: Working for justice in catastrophic times

Creating Hope: Working for justice in catastrophic times
Author: Yarrow Goodley
Publisher: Interactive Publications
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2022-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1922830100

In the 2022 James Backhouse Lecture, Yarrow Goodley looks at the critical issue of climate justice—at how our responses to the climate emergency have the potential for great suffering, as well as great redemption. In a world where the rich pollute, and the poor suffer, we do not just need to address our rapidly-warming planet, but also the injustices which drive this environmental catastrophe. In conversation with Quaker and non-Quaker activists, Yarrow explores the history of this crisis, and the despair and hope we must negotiate in coming to grips with a problem of planetary proportions. This crisis offers us an unparalleled opportunity to remake our political, economic and social systems, in ways that support a liveable planet, while addressing the profound injustices of our age, especially racial inequality. Yarrow asks us ‘What can we do?’ and seeks to offer ways forward that create hope not just for all people, but for all the living creatures on our small bluegreen planet.

Seeking Union with Spirit

Seeking Union with Spirit
Author: Fiona Gardner
Publisher: Interactive Publications
Total Pages: 51
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Quakers
ISBN: 1922332232

For over twenty years, Fiona has participated in facilitating the Meeting for Learning (a year-long program for spiritual nurture, designed to explore Spirit and Quaker ways), and lives with her partner in a small intentional community that has been a place of spiritual nurture and learning. She has worked as a social worker for many years and now as a university teacher, particularly in fostering critical reflection and spirituality for social workers and critical spirituality for pastoral care workers. A continuing challenge in her spiritual life has been how to integrate her spiritual being in all of these aspects of her life.In the 2010 Lecture, Fiona asks Why seek to live life in union with Spirit? Such a life, in my experience and that of many others, is a fuller, richer, meaning filled and deeper life, connected to that which is eternal. It means moving from what is often called the divided life, beyond opposing forces to a place of wholeness, to integrating all of who we are in all that we do. To do this means holding together these opposites.

The Long Perspective

The Long Perspective
Author: Patricia Gosling
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2015-05-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1326435094

This book is an attempt to understand English society over the last seventy years, using a psychoanalytical perspective. It looks at the destabilising effect of war and other stresses, and the subsequent social reaction to such events. It contains an acknowledgment of the basic biology of the human race, and a plea that our given attributes be respected, particularly in the field of child nurture. The author is a long-term Quaker. That spiritual perspective is a background throughout.

Einstein's War

Einstein's War
Author: Matthew Stanley
Publisher: Viking
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1524745413

"Stanley is a storyteller par excellence."--The Washington Post Kirkus Review starred review; Publishers Weekly starred review; Booklist starred review The birth of a world-changing idea in the middle of a bloodbath Einstein's War is a riveting exploration of both the beauty of scientific creativity and enduring horrors of human nature. These two great forces battle in a story that culminates with a victory now a century old, the mind-bending theory of general relativity. Few recognize how the Great War, the industrialized slaughter that bled Europe from 1914 to 1918, shaped Einstein's life and work. While Einstein never held a rifle, he formulated general relativity blockaded in Berlin, literally starving. He lost fifty pounds in three months, unable to communicate with his most important colleagues. Some of those colleagues fought against rabid nationalism; others were busy inventing chemical warfare--being a scientist trapped you in the power plays of empire. Meanwhile, Einstein struggled to craft relativity and persuade the world that it was correct. This was, after all, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton, and its victory was far from sure. Scientists seeking to confirm Einstein's ideas were arrested as spies. Technical journals were banned as enemy propaganda. Colleagues died in the trenches. Einstein was separated from his most crucial ally by barbed wire and U-boats. This ally was the Quaker astronomer and Cambridge don A. S. Eddington, who would go on to convince the world of the truth of relativity and the greatness of Einstein. In May of 1919, when Europe was still in chaos from the war, Eddington led a globe-spanning expedition to catch a fleeting solar eclipse for a rare opportunity to confirm Einstein's bold prediction that light has weight. It was the result of this expedition--the proof of relativity, as many saw it--that put Einstein on front pages around the world. Matthew Stanley's epic tale is a celebration of how bigotry and nationalism can be defeated and of what science can offer when they are.

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age
Author: Lisa Isherwood
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-12-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000522733

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age examines the role of women in Christianity in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. This edited volume includes eight important contributions from academics in the field. The modern era has been an age of social and religious upheaval, and the ravages of global warfare and changes to women’s role in society have made the examination of the place of women in religion a key question in theology. From theological concerns - engagements with the biblical texts by feminist and anti-feminist theologians, the modern role of Mary and women saints – to political and social debates on women’s ministry and place in society, and cultural shifts as expressed through theologically inspired artwork by women, Women in Christianity in the Modern Age provides an overview and in-depth studies of a tumultuous and changing era. This insightful text will be of key interest to students and scholars in Religion and Cultural Studies.

Quaker Quicks - Quakers and Science

Quaker Quicks - Quakers and Science
Author: Helen Holt
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2023-05-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1803411406

'This book makes a strikingly original contribution to the science-and-religion debate. Through a series of bite-sized biographies Helen Holt explores the distinctive approaches that Quaker scientists have brought to their scientific work. Emphasising shared commitments to social justice, pacifism, experience and the Inner Light, Holt paints compelling and human portraits of both Quakerism and science. This book stands out as an important milestone in studies of science and religious faith.' Mark Harris, Professor of Natural Science and Theology, University of Edinburgh Quakerism has a rich tradition of engaging with science and has produced many notable amateur and professional scientists in fields ranging from psychology to physics. Quakers and Science discusses some of the historical reasons why Quakers embraced science and introduces ten 20th-century Quaker scientists to explore the intriguing resonances between science and Quakerism. Author Helen Holt shows how the distinctive Quaker emphasis on ‘deeds not creeds' motivated Quaker scientists to address the ethical questions raised by science, and how the emphasis on continual revelation meant that they often gladly reformulated their religious beliefs in the light of new scientific discoveries.

History of Astronomy

History of Astronomy
Author: John Lankford
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2013-03-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136508341

This Encyclopedia traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts.

What Stars Are Made Of

What Stars Are Made Of
Author: Donovan Moore
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674237374

A New Scientist Book of the Year A Physics Today Book of the Year A Science News Book of the Year The history of science is replete with women getting little notice for their groundbreaking discoveries. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a tireless innovator who correctly theorized the substance of stars, was one of them. It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early twentieth-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what has been called “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy,” she was the first to describe what stars are made of. Payne-Gaposchkin lived in a society that did not know what to make of a determined schoolgirl who wanted to know everything. She was derided in college and refused a degree. As a graduate student, she faced formidable skepticism. Revolutionary ideas rarely enjoy instantaneous acceptance, but the learned men of the astronomical community found hers especially hard to take seriously. Though welcomed at the Harvard College Observatory, she worked for years without recognition or status. Still, she accomplished what every scientist yearns for: discovery. She revealed the atomic composition of stars—only to be told that her conclusions were wrong by the very man who would later show her to be correct. In What Stars Are Made Of, Donovan Moore brings this remarkable woman to life through extensive archival research, family interviews, and photographs. Moore retraces Payne-Gaposchkin’s steps with visits to cramped observatories and nighttime bicycle rides through the streets of Cambridge, England. The result is a story of devotion and tenacity that speaks powerfully to our own time.