The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jeremy Campbell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393061795 | ISBN-13: 978-0393061796 | Publication Date: August 17, 2006 | Edition: 1

How science has changed our perceptions of God—from the age of Newton to the era of quantum mechanics.

A grand work of philosophy and history, The Many Faces of God shows how our religious conceptions have been shaped by advances in technology and science. Beginning his narrative in the 1600s and concluding with the fervor of the millennium, Jeremy Campbell shows how Isaac Newton and his generation altered the medieval definition of God from one interpreted through divine messengers to an all-knowing, autocratic God who watched over the scientific wonders of the universe. Arguing that religions harbor a secret fear that science may one day explain God away, Campbell masterfully shows how twentieth-century technology and theology have become intertwined, often to the detriment of both disciplines. Illuminating the writings of such intellectual luminaries as Calvin, Luther, Einstein, and Niels Bohr, all the way up to John Updike, The Many Faces of God is a sweeping history of religious and scientific thought in the Western world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Readers who recognize Newton and Bohr as pathbreaking scientists may be surprised to learn what they--and other laboratory mavens--have asserted about God. In a provocative and much-needed investigation, Campbell illuminates the ways in which science has recast the meaning of religious faith. Readers see how science first emerged in the seventeenth century as a new mediator between God and his people, so testing traditional religious authorities. Some of those authorities shared the fears of the Catholic inquisitors who tried to suppress the radical new science of a moving earth. Others joined rationalist Protestants who so fully embraced the Newtonian formulas that scriptural accounts of the world soon seemed unnecessary. Nor have newer scientific theories--the big bang, chaos theory, quantum mechanics--lessened the difficulties for those seeking an intellectually informed faith. Campbell recognizes that the strange indeterminacies of modern physics open metaphysical possibilities long closed by Newton's rigid mathematics. But even as he challenges today's theologians to match the daring of their scientific colleagues, Campbell urges them to keep their distance. For although new scientific paradoxes may foster a deeper awareness of cosmic ironies, theologians still must confront the oldest of mysteries with abiding nonscientific attributes--integrity and hope. An essential acquisition. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Jeremy Campbell is the author of The Liar’s Tale, Winston Churchill’s Afternoon Nap, and The Grammatical Man. He is the Washington correspondent for the Evening Standard and lives in Washington, DC.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393061795
• ISBN-13: 978-0393061796
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,000,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nuanced view of the tension between science and theology, May 31, 2007

By 

Thomas R. Spencer (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine (Hardcover)

The style of Campbell's book is somewhat idiosyncratic. One sometimes gets the impression that the author is telling you the same story again and again. In a sense, he is, but this is not always a bad thing. Campbell covers a lot of territory--from the middle ages to the 21st century--but the book really revolves around the 17th century. We hear about the same figures quite a bit (particularly Newton), but each chapter takes up a different part of the discussion between science and religion, and instead of becoming repetitive, I found that the overall picture took on ever greater depth and clarity.

This is not an atheist tract. (The first reviewer was perhaps hoping that it was.) Its purpose is not polemical in the least. Its aim is to understand where the uncomfortably close relationship between science and religion got started, and how our modern strategies for talking about God are still influenced by this history. We try to imagine "where" God is in the universe, and what role he plays in its operation. Is he a designer, a maintenance man, an interventionist, a kind of information? Is he everywhere, nowhere, inside, outside? Is God more like intelligence or more like will? (The debate is not, as a previous reviewer incorrectly says, between God being "transcendent" or "willful.") These are the sorts of questions for which the book provides a very insightful and learned back-history. It is not just history, however, since Campbell repeatedly ties the past to the present. We learn almost as much about the 20th century as we do about the 17th.

Campbell is utterly aware of the ironies and contradictions that riddle the world of religion. His book would never "comfort" the run-of-the-mill Christian. Nevertheless, he supports the theological enterprise. He thinks that the legitimacy of theology need not depend on its scientific plausibility. (This is partly because in an age of scientific indeterminacy, chaos theory, quantum strangeness, and other conundrums, science is becoming less certain that it will ever explain itself.) Many today feel that science can make or break religion, but it was not always so, and need not be so now. Religion brought this fate on itself, and Campbell believes it could regain its previous autonomy. A return to dogmatic religion is impossible, he says, but their is much that could still be done in our thinking about God. This "fairness" to theology may engender some disgust among "new atheists," but in the end I think it reflects the cool head and broad perspective of a historian.

An elegant, erudite, and fascinating read!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Know your Physics, Newtonian and Quantum, before reading, January 17, 2007

By 

William Thornton (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine (Hardcover)

The potential buyer of this book needs to know the God Campbell writes about is basically confined to the Judeo/Christian/English perspective of God. Other times and views are mentioned, but the core of the book follows Campbell's experience.

The book is written in 22 chapters of 10 to 15 pages. The organization allows focus on specific times and thoughts. Importantly, a basic understanding of physics, both Newtonian and Quantum, is helpful to enjoy the 2nd half of the book.

Campbell gives primary emphasis toward the creator's physical creation. The mystery and wonder of life is not addressed equally. Many of us believe God is more concerned, if concerned at all, with our lives, the choices we make, and our living relationship to him than to the physical world that surrounds us.

I would have enjoyed more recognition and discussion regarding the time-related, progressive revelation of God from the beginning of the Old Testament through the New Testament.

Campbell minimizes the role of Jesus and the traditional views held by most Christians today. The Christian reader will wonder why so much time is given to physicists and so little attention to the writer of the Gospel of John. John 10:30: "I and my Father are one." John 14:9: Jesus says, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Newton on God, May 6, 2010

By 

Adam Rourke author of The Goblin Universe - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine (Hardcover)

If you are someone who believes that science has more to say about the nature of God than the church does then this is a book you will enjoy. There can be no doubt that the discoveries of science into how the world is made have profoundly altered the way humans perceive God. Jeremy Campbell traces the history of that revolution and how it has infiltrated into all aspects of man kinds understanding of the nature of the Divine. Changing what it means to have faith in the process. Instead of a classical history book, however, we are given a rather eclectic group beginning with Tertullian, dominated by Newton and ending with John Updike, of all people. The theology presented here is of the simplest while the science is only slightly better. There is much talk of quantum mechanics, for example, but little in the way of concrete examples. He tries to trace the progress of the paradigm shift these discoveries have produced but in the end it comes off as curiously light weight.

Scientists of the caliber of Isaac Newton had their own understanding of what their discoveries meant and the thoughts of men of that stature are always worth considering. Where the book loses its way is in the impression that these ideas are more than just opinions. Although, to his credit, Campbell recognizes that theology does not depend on science for its validity. Reading all of the various ideas that different scientists have put forth over the years one is reminded of Renee Descartes who once said that there was nothing so strange but that some philosopher had said it. Scientists seem to have fallen into the same trap. But he is right, science now has the upper hand on the church and the sight of some of the finest theological thinkers of the last 100 years kowtowing to science is not an inspiring sight. For if God is a transcendent God as the theologians maintain then He is outside of and beyond the universe we know. He is hence beyond experimentation and watching scientist comb through quantum mechanics searching for God's entry point into the universe comes off as merely sad.

What has been shown are the problems that arise when both science and theology fails to stick to their own business. For when you try to use the experimental method to understand the true nature of God you move from solid science to irrelevancy. Don't allow yourself to fall into this trap and you will find some interesting history, some provocative ideas, and a better understanding of the current state of theological thinking. If your area of interest is Newton and his ideas about the world then this book is worth a look, if you are looking for insights into the nature of God you might want to pass on by.