A Summer Place to Go, Book Recommendations Part 1

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“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

I don’t think aphorist Mason Cooley was thinking of pandemic summer reading when he coined this gem, but his words may never be more true than now.

As you know, one of the central goals of Science for the Church is to help you, the body of Christ, find good resources. This includes material that connects the dots between science and Christian faith as well as science that is relevant to Biblical or theological themes. And sometimes it is just the kind of science that inspires wonder at God’s handiwork.

Each week, we share a few links that we believe will help you better understand a particular theme and engage with it in your ministry. Normally, we direct you to short-form material. We know most of you have too many places to go to dedicate more than 5, maybe 10 minutes on a link.

But we hope that the arrival of summer, a COVID-19 summer nonetheless, means some time for books, longer videos, or full length podcasts. So this week we offer a collection of long-form resources clustered around a few themes.


Science as Vocation

Core work for the church is to help each and everyone one of us to see our professional lives as a vocation, or The Call as Os Guiness puts it. One of the ways we seek to strengthen churches is by helping them nurture a richer sense of vocation among scientists and STEM professionals. Fortunately, there are several guides, including ones that consider aspects unique to specific scientific disciplines. Perhaps more fun for a leisurely summer afternoon, there are many stories (in various formats) of scientists who can serve as exemplars for STEM professionals and the churches that support them.


Character and Virtue

Do you think of science as a resource for discipleship? Or sanctification? One major area of psychological research is the study of character and virtue which helps us understand traits like gratitude, generosity, hope, and humility and how to cultivate them. Often labeled “positive psychology,” this is a rich area for engagement by the church, in as much as we seek to produce more grateful, generous, hopeful, and humble disciples.


Evolution and Christian Faith

Bringing together evolutionary theory and Christian faith puzzles some and troubles others. There are many good resources—we recommend you start with one of the classics, Francis Collins’s The Language of God or Darrel Falk’s Coming to Peace—and we offer some additions below, both new and old.


Oh the Places You’ll Go!

We had so much fun putting together this collection of resources that we’ll do it again next week—three more topical clusters of long-form resources to ensure you have plenty of places to go in this pandemic summer of 2020. Enjoy!

Oh, and now that we’ve told you about some of our favorite resources, we would love to hear from you. Simply hit reply and tell us which ones you found helpful or something that we missed.

Cheers,

Drew and Greg

P.S. We sent around a survey last week. Please reply—unless you are like Chidi Anagonye, we promise it will only take a few minutes.

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