Mere Science and Christian Faith

"Greg Cootsona has been consistently at the vanguard of interconnections between science, faith, and the arts. Now with Mere Science and Christian Faith, he again proves to be a go-to resource for how science and faith together can offer generative solutions."
-Makoto Fujimura, artist and director of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts

"What a great book. This sentence alone should be mandatory church wisdom: 'Let’s not fool around with science that can't be supported by scientists.' Greg reflects on science, technology, faith, and emerging adults with learning, urgency, clarity, and grace."
-John Ortberg, senior pastor of Menlo Church, author of I’d Like You More If You Were More Like Me

"In this book you’ll find the usual suspects in books on science and religion: age of the earth, creation ex nihilo, Adam and Eve, and so on. But here you’ll also find thoughtful discussions of technology, climate change, and sexuality. These latter are the topics emerging adults are more interested in, and Cootsona has been listening to them. His book is no ivory tower treatment of ideas in the abstract, but it is filled with on-the-ground insights gleaned from his extensive interaction with eighteen- to thirty-year-olds. All of us engaged in the science and religion dialogue would do well to read this book to see where our field is going. Others who have been turned off by acrimonious science and faith arguments will find a much more attractive way into the topics—and perhaps into faith itself. See that a copy of this book gets into their hands!"
-Jim Stump, senior editor at BioLogos

"When considering how the findings of contemporary science may be fused with Christianity (or not), it is easy to assume that progress will emerge from reasoned arguments or more science, when what we need is more sensitivity to how beliefs concerning faith and science may be wrapped up in our social and personal identities. Without neglecting genuine intellectual hurdles, Cootsona brings a valuable pastoral dimension to the faith-science space resulting in a book that would be useful to young adults as they navigate how to be thinking, science-affirming Christ-followers."
-Justin L. Barrett, chief project developer, Fuller Seminary Office for Science, Theology, and Religion Initiatives

"Anyone who cares about why young adults are leaving churches should read Mere Science and Christian Faith. Cootsona presents up-to-date research with the sensibility and compassion of a pastor. It’s an incredibly accessible and useful volume."
-Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in social sciences at Rice University, author of Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think

"I’ve been longing for someone to write this book. Drawing from both his extensive experience in ministry with young adults and his theological expertise, Greg Cootsona delivers a compelling book on how ‘faith and science are not in a wrestling match where one will be the victor.’ For pastors and emerging adult ministry leaders like myself, Mere Science and Christian Faith provides us with an indispensable field guide that both identifies challenges, but also shows the creative ways faith can integrate and collaborate with science—rather than only seeing conflict. Here is a book I would like to put in the hands of all eighteen- to thirty-year-olds who take science and faith seriously."
-Craig Gartland, pastor of spiritual formation at Blackhawk Church, Madison, WI