Revd Dr Rodney Holder
Former Course Director
Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Biography
Biographical information is not available at present.
Biography
The Revd Dr Rodney Holder retired as Course Director of the Faraday Institute at the end of January 2013 and before that was Priest in Charge of the Parish of the Claydons, Diocese of Oxford. Dr Holder read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and researched for a D.Phil. in astrophysics at Christ Church, Oxford. He remained at Oxford for a further two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Astrophysics researching accretion of intergalactic gas by the galaxy. After 14 years working for UK Ministry of Defence clients as an operational research consultant with EDS (formerly Scicon), he returned to Oxford, and took a first class degree in theology in 1996. Completing his ministerial training the following year, Dr. Holder then worked for four years as a curate in South Warwickshire , followed by a seven month sabbatical period as chaplain of the English Church in Heidelberg, before appointment to the Claydons in 2002.
Dr Holder explored ways in which science and faith may complement each other in Nothing But Atoms and Molecules? (1993, reprinted 2008). In his second book, God, the Multiverse, and Everything (2004), Dr Holder examines the fine-tunings of natural law that were necessary for life to evolve in our universe and uses Bayes' theorem, a classic tool for determining probability, to assess their metaphysical significance. His 1998 paper on miracles won a Templeton Foundation Prize as an exemplary paper in humility theology. Dr Holder’s book, The Heavens Declare (2012), seeks to reinstate the enterprise of natural theology in dialogue with its severest opponent, Karl Barth, and a group of significant theologians who have reacted to Barth’s critique in various ways. He is editor, jointly with Simon Mitton, of Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (2012). This book examines the historical, cosmological and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from the pioneering work of Lemaître up to the present day. A further book on cosmology and faith by Rodney Holder is Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life (Lion Hudson 2013), and in 2014 he published a book of reflections for Advent: Longing, Waiting, Believing: Reflections for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2014).
Dr Holder is Reviews Editor of Science and Christian Belief and is on the national committee of Christians in Science. He is a member of the International Society for Science and Religion, the Society of Ordained Scientists, and the Science and Religion Forum, and is a Bye Fellow of St Edmund's College Cambridge.
Honoraria Titles
Major Prizes
Religion, Philosophy & History Interests
Christianity-Protestantism, Philosophy of Religion, Theology
Science & Technology Interests
Cosmology, Physics
Publications
The Heavens Declare: Natural Theology and the Legacy of Karl Barth
Templeton Press 2012
http://templetonpress.org/book/heavens-declare
Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving on from Natural Theology
Routledge 2021
https://www.routledge.com/Ramified-Natural-Theology-in-Science-and-Religion-Moving-Forward-from-Natural/Holder/p/book/9780367569648
God, the Multiverse, and Everything: Modern Cosmology and the Argument from Design
Ashgate 2004
www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=5052&edition_id=5189
Nothing But Atoms and Molecules? Probing the limits of science
The Faraday Institute 2008 (third edition)
www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Shop.php?Mode=Books
‘Quantum Theory and Theology’, in The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity
Wiley-Blackwell 2012
Editors:James B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett
http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1444335715.html
Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Heidelberg: Springer 2012
Co-authors: Simon Mitton
www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-3-642-32253-2
‘Georges Lemaître and Fred Hoyle: Contrasting Characters in Science and Religion’, in Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Heidelberg: Springer 2012
Editors:Rodney Holder and Simon Mitton
www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-3-642-32253-2
‘An Augustinian Perspective on Creation and Evolution’, in Augustine and Science, Series Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books 2013
Editors:John Doody, Adam Goldstein and Kim Paffenroth
https://rowman.com/ISBN/978-0-7391-7434-0
‘Natural Theology in the Twentieth Century’, in The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology
Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013
Editors:Russell Re Manning
Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life?
Lion Hudson 2013
www.lionhudson.com/display.asp?K=9780745956268&nat=false&sf1=keyword&st1=Holder&m=1&dc=2
Longing, Waiting, Believing: Reflections for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
BIble Reading Fellowship 2014
http://www.brfonline.org.uk/9781841017563/
