Faith at the Frontiers of Knowledge

R. Ross

Description

Unity of knowledge is not easily achieved in today’s Africa where often there is little conscious interaction between traditional beliefs, Christian faith and modern secularity. The challenge is taken up in this book as scholars from a variety of disciplines wrestle with the relation of faith and science at the frontiers of knowledge. The results are important alike for the integrity of faith, for scientific advance and for the attainment of creative cultural unity in society. Readers with such concerns at heart will find much food for thought as they traverse the broad frontiers explored in these wide-ranging essays.

Informations

• Publié par: Luviri Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789996098192
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Kenneth R. Ross
Faith at the Fronters of Knowledge
Unity of knowledge is not easily achieved in today’s Africa
where ofen there is litle conscious interacton between Faith at the Frontiers traditonal beliefs, Christan faith and modern secularity. The
challenge is taken up in this book as scholars from a variety of
disciplines wrestle with the relaton of faith and science at the of Knowledge
fronters of knowledge. The results are important alike for the
integrity of faith, for scientfic advance and for the atainment
of creatve cultural unity in society. Readers with such concerns
at heart will find much food for thought as they traverse the
broad fronters explored in these wide-ranging essays.
Kenneth R. Ross was Professor of Theology
at Chancellor College, University of Malawi,
where he coordinated the Faith of Knowledge
Seminars on which this book is based.
He is now the parish minister of Netherlorn
in Argyll, Hon Fellow of the University of
Edinburgh School of Divinity and Chair of the
Scotland Malawi Partnership.
Edited by
Kenneth R. Ross
This book is part of Luviri Press
which offers a range of books
on religion, culture and society
from Malawi Luviri Reprints no. 2



Faith at the Frontiers
of Knowledge Copyright 2018 Kenneth R. Ross



All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without prior permission from the publishers.



Published by
Luviri Press
P/Bag 201 Luwinga
Mzuzu 2
Malawi



ISBN 978-99960-98-18-5
eISBN 978-99960-98-19-2

Luviri Reprints no. 2


Luviri Press is represented outside Africa by:
African Books Collective Oxford ([e-mail])


www.mzunipress.blogspot.com
www.africanbookscollective.com


Editorial assistance and cover: Daniel Neumann


First published by Kachere Series, Zomba in 1998.

Faith at the Frontiers
of Knowledge



Edited by
Kenneth R. Ross





Luviri Press


Luviri Reprints no. 1
Mzuzu
2018
Luviri Reprints

Many books have been published on or in Malawi that are no longer
available. While some of these books simply have run their course,
others are still of interest for scholars and the general public. Some of
the classics have been reprinted outside Malawi over the decades, and
during the last two decades, first the Kachere Series and then other
publishers have achieved "never out of stock status" by joining the
African Books Collective's Print on Demand approach, but there are
still a good number of books that would be of interest but are no
longer in print.
The Luviri Reprint Series has taken up the task to make those books on
or from Malawi, which are out of print but not out of interest,
available again, through Print on Demand and therefore worldwide.
While the Luviri Reprint Series concentrates on Malawi, it is also
interested in the neighbouring countries and even in those further
afield.
Luviri Reprints publish the books as they originally were. Usually a new
Foreword is added, and where appropriate, new information has been
added. All such additions, mostly in footnotes, are marked by an
asterisk (*).

The Editors
Foreword
Of the many books published in Malawi over the past twenty-five
years few have such range as this one in terms both disciplinary
approach and subject matter. A book that embraces the natural
sciences, social sciences and humanities is certainly not lacking in
ambition. It arose out of a very particular context, the scholarly
community that was assembled at the University of Malawi’s
Chancellor College in the 1990s. It was a comparatively small
University. As subsequent developments have shown, it was much too
small to meet the demand for tertiary education in the country.
However, for a period of time it made for a concentration of creative
scholars from a variety of disciplines who came to know each other
well and who had the shared experience of being an academic
community in the midst of a society that was rapidly changing socially
and politically.
Many of them were also people of faith and interested in exploring the
inter-relation of their faith and their academic inquiry. This meant that
for purposes of scholarship this community had certain distinctive
advantages. There was a natural interaction between academics
working in different disciplines. Since in total they numbered around
120 they knew each other well and were often comparing notes. In
contrast to the Western academy where faith is often regarded as a
different realm to that of academic inquiry, the African context
prompted a more wholistic understanding where the vision of faith
informs our understanding across the board.
The trend in academic life has continued to be towards specialization,
with rather few scholars showing concern for the unity of knowledge,
nor for the inter-relation of faith and knowledge. Even in the Malawi
context, colleagues have looked back on the eight years of the Faith
and Knowledge Seminar, 1990-97, as a high water mark in
interdisciplinary engagement within the University. While faith continues to
play a significant role in Malawi life this was perhaps the most
sustained attempt to explore the inter-connection of the life of faith
5 and the cutting edge of academic research. It is therefore much to be
welcomed that it can remain available as a Luviri Reprint.
No attempt has been made in this collection to arrive at a systematic
or comprehensive conclusion. More modestly it offers a sample of
different lines of academic inquiry with each demonstrating the
relevance of a faith perspective to its field. It is to be hoped that the
continuing availability of this volume will stimulate others to
contribute to the unity of knowledge that is so greatly needed in our
time.

Kenneth R. Ross
Argyll, Scotland
May 2018

6 Contents
Introduction: Faith, Science and Society 9
1. Stewardship of the Environment and the Pressures
of the Modern World: Is There a Christian Response? 19
2. The New Commandment and the Selfish Gene 30
3. The Role of Creativity in Mathematics 41
4. The Physical Concept of Time
and the Christian Concept of Eternity 49
5. Accountability: Living Our Faith?
An Information Systems Perspective 58
6 The Rights of the Child in the Christian Context 81
7. The AIDS Crisis:
A Challenge to the Integrity of the Church in Malawi 104
8. Singing, Dancing and Believing:
Civic Education in Malawi Idiom 123
9. "Not War but Defence of the Oppressed"?
Bishop Mackenzie's Skirmishes with the Yao in 1861 142
10. What About Those Difficult Phases in the History of
Black People?: A Christian Appraisal of the African Experience 161
11. Paradigm Shift in Scientific Advance:
A Model for Christian Conversion in the Modern World? 179
12. Christianity and the Visual Arts in Malawi 196
13. Christianity: Liberative or Oppressive to African Women? 217
14. Christian Missions and Western Colonialism:
Soulmates or Antagonists? 239
The Faith and Knowledge Seminars 1990-1997 259
Notes on Contributors 262

7
8 Introduction: Faith, Science and Society
Kenneth R. Ross
A legacy of the European Enlightenment is the common assumption, in
educated circles, that there is an inevitable conflict between science
and faith. Even in Africa, where most societies have a strongly
wholistic traditional worldview, the acids of modernity have often dissolved
any connection between the pursuit of science and the practice of
faith. This book is the product of a sustained process of reflection on
the relation of faith and knowledge which occurred at an African
University in the 1990s. It seeks to promote a much more positive
understanding of the interaction of faith and knowledge than that
which commonly prevails in academic circles. This endeavour is
rooted, first, in the very nature of Christian faith. A proper
understanding of Christianity makes plain that the kind of self-criticism
and correction which science demands of faith is not something it
finds strange or alien. For built into faith is its own dynamic which
drives it towards explanation and definition. This was what was
grasped by the early Christian thinkers who described theology as
"faith seeking understanding". A Christian believer cannot rest content
with a faith which is esoteric and out of touch with the total human
intellectual endeavour.
While there always remains an important sense in which the gospel is
"foolishness to the Greeks", at the same time a faith which trusts in
one who claimed "I am the truth" is driven to explore that truth in
relation to the whole of our field of knowledge. As Gerhard Ebeling
co