Awards

• Winner of Honourable Mention from the 3rd edition of the Expanded Reason Awards Resarch Category.

Overview

When young children first begin to ask 'why?' they embark on a journey with no final destination. The need to make sense of the world as a whole is an ultimate curiosity that lies at the root of all human religions. It has, in many cultures, shaped and motivated a more down to earth scientific interest in the physical world, which could therefore be described as penultimate curiosity.These two manifestations of curiosity have a history of connection that goes back deep into the human past. Tracing that history all the way from cave painting to quantum physics, this book (a collaboration between a painter and a physical scientist that uses illustrations throughout the narrative) sets out to explain the nature of the long entanglement between religion and science: the ultimate and the penultimate curiosity.

Full Product Details

Author:   Roger Wagner (Artist and writer, Artist and writer) ,  Andrew Briggs (Professor of Nanomaterials, Professor of Nanomaterials, University of Oxford, UK)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.80cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.90cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9780198839286

ISBN 10:   0198839286
Pages:   496
Publication Date:   17 April 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

PART I: In the Beginning I 1: The First Men 2: Tentasali 3: Watauinawa 4: The Garden of Eden Moment 5: Primate Parallels 6: Horizons of Curiosity 7: Ultimate Curiosity PART II: God Driven Science 8: The Lions of Miletus 9: The Move to Athens 10: Through the Academy Door PART III: Encounters in Alexandria 11: Two Students 12: The Divided City 13: Industrious Jack 14: The Creation of the World PART IV: The Long Argument 15: The Dream of Aristotle 16: Al Ghazali's Pilgrimmage 17: A Tale of Two Cities 18: Imposed Silence 19: Experimental Science 20: The Universal Law PART V: The Open Book of Heaven 21: Against Aristotle 22: Free Philosophising 23: The Freedom of Intellect 24: Simplicius Reborn 25: The Creation PART VI: Priests of Nature 26: A New Era 27: A Lutheran Astrologer 28: The Experimental Philosophy 29: The Oxonian Sparkles PART VII: The Ocean of Truth 30: Le Grand Newton 31: The Beautiful System 32: Mathematical Theologies 33: The Coast of Infinity PART VIII: Voyages of Discovery 34: Two Journeys 35: The Mystery of Mysteries 36: The Creed of Science PART IX: In the Beginning II 37: The Literary Inquest 38: Breaking the Seals 39: The Intellectual Picklock 40: In a Strange Land 41: By the waters of Babylon 42: Adan and Adapa 43: Ariadne's Thread PART X: Through the Laboratory Door 44: Science in a Time of Cholera 45: A Visit to the Museum 46: Experiments of Thought 47: The Unity of Nature 48: The Works of the Lord PART XI: Epilogue

Reviews

Evidence-based scientific rationality is very good at finding answers to the how questions. How did the Universe evolve from the Big Bang? How does matter arrange itself into objects ranging from atomic nuclei to human beings, planets and stars? But when it comes to the why questions, science does not necessarirly have the answers. Instead of putting science and religion in opposition to each other, we should therefore be asking if dialogue can exist between the two, whether they can respect each other and accept each other's points of view. In the Penultimate Curiosity, Andew Briggs and Roger Wagner demonstrate that it is not only possible, but also enriching to follow such a course. * Rolf Heuer, Director General, CERN * The achievements of science are breathtaking. At times so breathtaking that they cause us to lose perspective on the wonderful created world of which we, the most 'curious' of animals, are a part. This book is a remarkable achievement in that whilst reaching from prehistory, through ancient Greece to the present day, it draws upon the distinctive intellectual resources of a distinguished artist and art historian and a researcher at the cutting-edge of contemporary science. The resulting, beautifully illustrated volume, is a feast of interdisciplinary thinking at its best. It raises profound questions, The Penultimate Curiosity, posed for millennia by philosophers, religious people and more recently scientists, and points to constructive answers. * Malcolm Jeeves, St Andrews University, UK * Our species should be called Homo spiritualis rather than sapiens. Asking Why? about the world gave rise to Religion, Philosophy, and Science. The interactions and entanglements are outlined in this book of amazing scope and interest. * Jean Clottes, Senior Scientist of the Chauvet Cave * This book offers a fascinating perspective on the perennial human quest for understanding and meaning. Its two distinguished authors - with contrasting backgrounds - have meshed their expertise together to create a thought-provoking and original synthesis. * Sir Martin Rees, University of Cambridge, UK *

This book offers a fascinating perspective on the perennial human quest for understanding and meaning. Its two distinguished authors - with contrasting backgrounds - have meshed their expertise together to create a thought-provoking and original synthesis. * Sir Martin Rees, University of Cambridge, UK * Our species should be called Homo spiritualis rather than sapiens. Asking Why? about the world gave rise to Religion, Philosophy, and Science. The interactions and entanglements are outlined in this book of amazing scope and interest. * Jean Clottes, Senior Scientist of the Chauvet Cave * The achievements of science are breathtaking. At times so breathtaking that they cause us to lose perspective on the wonderful created world of which we, the most 'curious' of animals, are a part. This book is a remarkable achievement in that whilst reaching from prehistory, through ancient Greece to the present day, it draws upon the distinctive intellectual resources of a distinguished artist and art historian and a researcher at the cutting-edge of contemporary science. The resulting, beautifully illustrated volume, is a feast of interdisciplinary thinking at its best. It raises profound questions, The Penultimate Curiosity, posed for millennia by philosophers, religious people and more recently scientists, and points to constructive answers. * Malcolm Jeeves, St Andrews University, UK * Evidence-based scientific rationality is very good at finding answers to the how questions. How did the Universe evolve from the Big Bang? How does matter arrange itself into objects ranging from atomic nuclei to human beings, planets and stars? But when it comes to the why questions, science does not necessarirly have the answers. Instead of putting science and religion in opposition to each other, we should therefore be asking if dialogue can exist between the two, whether they can respect each other and accept each other's points of view. In the Penultimate Curiosity, Andew Briggs and Roger Wagner demonstrate that it is not only possible, but also enriching to follow such a course. * Rolf Heuer, Director General, CERN *

Author Information

"Roger Wagner has been described by Charles Moore as the ""best religious painter in Britain today"". He gained first class honours in English Literature at Oxford, and then studied for three years at the Royal Academy before returning to live in Oxford and paint full time. Both The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge have his work in their permanent collections. He has produced several books of illustrated poems and translations of the Psalms. Since 2010 he has taught at the Ruskin School of Art. A book about his work Forms of Transcendence The Art of Roger Wagner by Chris Miller was published in 2009. His 2012 Gresham College lecture was published on the web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMb8rIQbTGc. His new stained glass window was installed in St Mary's Iffley in 2012. He was commissioned to paint the first portrait of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury, which in 2014 was hung in Auckland Castle. Andrew Briggs was elected in 2002 as the first holder of the newly created Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. After studying physics at Oxford he gained a PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where the inscription from the Psalms was placed over the entrance of the new laboratory at his initiative. He then studied for a degree in Theology at Cambridge, winning the Chase Prize for Greek, before returning to Oxford in 1980 to pursue an academic career in science. In what is now the Department of Materials he has been successively Royal Society Research Fellow, University Lecturer, Reader, and Professor. His scientific research focuses on materials and techniques for quantum technologies, in which non-classical superposition and entanglement are harnessed for future applications such as computers and information processors. Simultaneously his experiments also probe foundational questions such as the nature of reality in the context of quantum theory."

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