In 1996, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences created a new award for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences. The Outstanding Books Prize recognized exemplary scholarship in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences and sought to foster outstanding scholarly investigation of the methodological relations between theology and science.
Books were judged using the following criteria: Does the book make a convincing and scholarly case? Does it have real potential for affecting opinion makers and the general public? Will it be an important resource to be used by other scholars teaching courses in science and religion in institutions of higher education? Has it been previously recognized through an outstanding award? Was it prepared from materials written for a named Lectureship, such as the Gifford Lectures? Does it have real potential for affecting opinion makers and the general public?
Over the five year period of 1996-2000, 25 outstanding books received prizes based on the decision of a panel of distinguished nominators and judges. Each prize included a check for $10,000 and a framed declaration of the award from CTNS. The authors were honored at ceremonies held at the Annual Meetings of both the American Academy of Religion and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in which leading scholars in theology and science lectured on the frontier issues in the field and underscored the contribution of these books to frontier research.
The winning books are listed below. Although this program is now completed, CTNS salutes these authors for what they have accomplished and looks forward to their future publications.
The Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences Prize was funded in part by grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the Richard Procunier Trust.
1996
Ian Barbour
Religion in an Age of Science. 1990.
John Hedley Brooke
Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. 1991.
Paul Davies
The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World. 1992.
Philip Hefner
The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. 1993.
Christopher B. Kaiser
Creation and the History of Science. 1991.
David C. Lindberg
The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450. 1992.
Clifford N. Matthews and Roy A. Varghese, editors
Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends: Where Science and Religion Meet. 1994.
Nancey Murphy
Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning. 1990.
Wolfhart Pannenberg, edited by Ted Peters
Toward a Theology of Nature: Essays on Science and Faith. 1993.
Arthur Peacocke
Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming-Natural, Human, and Divine. 1993.
John Polkinghorne
The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker. 1994.
Mikael Stenmark
Rationality in Science, Religion, and Everyday Life: A Critical Evaluation of Four Models of Rationality. 1995.
Robert J. Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke, editors
Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. 1995.
Angela Tilby
Soul: God, Self, and the New Cosmology. 1992.
Margaret Wertheim
Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars. 1995.
1997
Ronald Cole-Turner and Brent Waters
Pastoral Genetics: Theology and Care at the Beginning of Life. 1996.
W. Mark Richardson and Wesley Wildman
Religion and Science: History, Method, Dialogue. 1996.
Mark William Worthing
God, Creation, and Contemporary Physics. 1996.
1998
Philip Clayton
God and Contemporary Science. 1997.
Ted Peters
Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom. 1997.
1999
Warren S. Brown, Nancey Murphy, and H. Newton Malony, editors
Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature. 1998.
Ronald Numbers
Darwinism Comes to America. 1998.
John Polkinghorne
Belief in God in an Age of Science. 1998.
2000
Max Jammer
Einstein and Religion. 1999.
Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew B. Newberg
The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience. 1999.