Natural Grace: Dialogues on Science and Spirituality

by Rupert Sheldrake, Matthew Fox

British biologists Rupert Sheldrake and American priest Matthew Fox share an interest in going beyond the current limitations of institutional science and mechanistic religion. They both believe that as a new millennium dawns, a new vision is needed which brings together science, spirituality and a sense of the sacred. Their separation underlies the present crises of ecological devastation, despair and disempowerment. How else can hope in a new sense of meaning be awakened if not by the coming together of those two powerful traditions that were rent asunder in the 17th century? A new cosmology is needed that speaks to hearts as well as to minds. This volume presents dialogues, which emerged as Sheldrake and Fox spoke together in public and private settings on both sides of the Atlantic. They are preliminary explorations into this new territory. They examine the implications that flow from a recognition of living nature and the ways of grace. Rupert Sheldrake is the author of "Seven Experiments That Could Change the World". Matthew Fox is the author of "Original Blessing".

Genres: Spirituality, Science, Religion

Hardcover

First published June 6, 1996

About the author

Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and ten books. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he was a Scholar of Clare College, took a double first class honours degree and was awarded the University Botany Prize. He then studied philosophy and history of science at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow, before returning to Cambridge, where he took a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As the Rosenheim Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells in the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge University.

Recently, drawing on the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson, he developed the theory of morphic resonance, which makes use of the older notion of morphogenetic fields. He has researched and written on topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, telepathy, perception and metaphysics.