Quantum Mechanics

Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action

Edited by Robert John Russell, Philip Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John Polkinghorne

Quantum Mechanics, a collection of fifteen essays, explores the creative interaction among quantum physics, philosophy, and theology. This fine collection presents the results of the fifth international research conference co-sponsored by the Vatican Observatory, Rome, and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley. The overarching goal of these conferences is to support the engagement of constructive theology with the natural sciences and to investigate the philosophical and theological elements in ongoing theoretical research in the natural sciences.

In the first section of this collection, contributors introduce quantum mechanics and discuss its historical origins. Section two features essays covering a wide range of philosophical interpretations of quantum mechanics and the metaphysical questions that have arisen as scholars have tried to make sense of the paradoxes that have emerged. The final section contains essays exploring the possible place of quantum theory within a theological framework that includes the possibility of divine action.

Contributors are: Abner Shimony, Raymond Y. Chiao, Michael Berry, Ernan McMullin, William R. Stoeger, S.J., James T. Cushing, Jeremy Butterfield, Michael Redhead, Chris Clarke, John Polkinghorne, Michael Heller, Philip Clayton, Thomas F. Tracy, George F.R. Ellis, and Robert John Russell.

ROBERT JOHN RUSSELL is professor of theology and science, and founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. PHILIP CLAYTON is professor and chair of the Philosophy Department at the California State University, Sonoma. KIRK WEGTER-MCNELLY is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. JOHN POLKINGHORNE is past president, and now fellow, of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of Liverpool, England.

Reviews

“_Quantum Mechanics_ is the fifth volume in a series of ambitious anthologies that have been generated by high-level conferences at the Vatican over the past few years. . . . This final volume in the series, Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action, is a collection of essays written by some of the world’s leading thinkers on the meaning and significance of quantum mechanics. . . . The essays are aimed at scholars working in the field and even include a few equations, although much of the text will be accessible to nonspecialists. This volume and its four predecessors represent some of the most significant scholarly work being done at the intersection of science and religion.” —_Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology_