“Welcome to the website of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR). Our Society was founded twenty-five years ago as an international and interdisciplinary honorific association for scholars exploring the relationship of science and religion from an academic perspective. By science, we mean primarily the natural sciences, such as physics and biology, but also the social sciences. We define religion to embrace any social, cultural, or personal system of values, beliefs, or practices that relate the physical world (including humans) to the supernatural, spiritual, or transcendental. At least since the time of the ancient Greeks and Shang Dynasty in China, where historians detect the first recorded stirring of scientific thinking, the relationship between the scientific and the religious has received serious reflection. It continues to attract scholarly and popular interest. From these earliest stirrings to today, the story of science and religion ranges from instances of conflict and repression through dialogue to cross-fertilization and inspiration. Our goal is to serve as a scholarly society that promotes rigorous research on and balanced understandings of these two central social agents of past and present.

ISSR currently has over 400 members (or “Fellows”) from across the globe and continues to invite new Fellows through a formal peer-review selection process. Our Fellows explore the relationship between science and religion from the perspective of various academic disciplines including the sciences and the humanities. They include natural and social scientists, historians, philosophers, academic theologians, and physicians. Personally, I am a historian of science. We recognize that we live in a pluralistic world where people hold diverse views regarding nature and the supernatural. Within the bounds of academic scholarship, we seek to make the Society representative of this diversity without making it a pugilist for any viewpoint.

Our activities include research projects, scholarly and public conferences, outreach efforts, and policy statements. On this website, ISSR and our Fellows frequently engage with a range of timely and sometimes contentious issues. We aim to include within our Society the leading scholars from around the world concerned with science and religion, and to advance the study of this interface for the benefit of all. Thank you for visiting our website.”