ISSR 2025 Book Prize Professor Fraser Watts, Executive Secretary of the International Society for Science and Religion This is the sixth year of the Book Prize of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR). Each year, three prizes are awarded for the best recent books in the field of science and religion. ISSR is pleased to announce the award of the following with the 2025 Prize: In the academic category, the prize goes to Emily Qureshi-Hurst for Salvation in the Block Universe: Time, Tillich, and Transformation (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Qureshi-Hurst investigates a particularly challenging and under-explored issue on the interface of science and theology, i.e. how the “block universe” theory of time can be reconciled with a Christian understanding of personal salvation. She provides a very

Ecology between Religions and Sciences: Minds and Bodies in Nature 30 June – 3 July 2025 Stanton House Hotel, Swindon, UK CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS ISSR is pleased to announce its 2025 Summer Conference in response to our new priority research area on ecology and the environment. Plenary speakers for this conference will include: Mike Hulme (University of Cambridge) Climate, Ecological, and Social Crises – Scientific and Religious Perspectives Respondent: Celia Deane-Drummond (Oxford) Susan Power Bratton (Baylor University) Religion, scientific ecology, and environmental problem solving: Shared worldviews, constructive cooperation, separation, or conflict? Niels Henrik Gregersen (Copenhagen University) Three Irreducible Aspects of Ecology: Alterity, Power, and Entanglement Lisa H Sideris (UC Santa Barbara) Planetary Thinking in a Time of Crisis Arthur Petersen (University College London) Climate Change,

This is the fifth year of the book prize of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR). Three prizes are awarded, for the best books in the field of science and religion. The following prize-winners are announced.   In the academic category, the prize goes to Peter N. Jordan for Naturalism in the Christian Imagination. Providence and Causality in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009211970 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/naturalism-in-the-christian-imagination/5FA401FC6204EE99BE236155A17CE8F4   It is intriguing that the expansion of naturalism in 17th century England arose within the Christian doctrine of providence, not in opposition to it. In this highly informative book, Peter Jordan shows how theologians and natural philosophers of this period wove naturalistic explanations into their Christian understanding of God’s activity in the world. The 17th century discussion of

ISSR will be hosting the 2023 ISSR Book Prize Winners' Discussion on 15 Feb at 11:00 EST / 16:00GMT. Join us on Zoom for a live discussion with the winners and some of the Prize Committee. The winners of the 2023 Prize were Jonathan Topham for Reading the Book of Nature: How Eight Bestsellers Reconnected Christianity and the Sciences on the Eve of the Victorian Age from University of Chicago Press;  Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss for Human Flourishing: Scientific Insight and Spiritual Wisdom in Uncertain Times from Oxford University Press; and Donovan O Schaefer for Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin from Duke University Press. You can find the Zoom information by clicking the link here. Please feel free to share widely.

You can view the final conference program below. Navigation tools will appear at the bottom of the PDF, use them to change pages.

ISSR has successfully held an annual book prize for the last two years, and we are pleased to announce that our third year’s Book Prize is now open for nominations. Although the challenges of COVID-19 continue to impact the awarding of Prizes, we presented last year’s award winners online and hosted a conversation with them which is live on our YouTube channel for you to view. Thanks to a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, we continue into our third year, seeking the three best books in the field of “Science and Religion.” The intention of the Prize is to understand ‘religion’ broadly and to seek for excellence in both content and communication. We will seek to reward books that make a major contribution to the field, especially

A year ago most of us probably did not expect that COVID would still be dominating our lives as much as it is. The pandemic continues to have a radical effect on academic life. In some ways, it has been liberating to make the transition to doing so many things on zoom. It simplifies life considerably to travel less. However, many of us find that having minimal in-person contact is somewhat wearisome. COVID is teaching us to value human contact more deeply, and to understand its significance in our lives.   The evidence for the effectiveness of vaccination becomes more compelling all the time, so it becomes increasingly puzzling that there is an entrenched minority of people who remain anti-vaccine. It is always intriguing when people act (or

ISSR is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an online event next week for the 2021 ISSR Book Prize for Science and Religion's 2021 prize winners. To raise the profile of the Prize we are hosting a one-hour online event in which each of the three prize-winning authors will have a chance to talk about their book, and to discuss it with one of the judges from the Prize Committee. There will be an opportunity for questions from the online audience afterwards. The event will be chaired by Michael J Reiss, President of ISSR. The winners of this year's prize are: Ariel Glucklich will discuss his book, The Joy of Religion: Exploring the Nature of Pleasure in the Spiritual Life, with Ed Larson. James W Jones will discuss