Re: [asa] Guide to John Polkinghorne's books?

The following list is courtesy of Wikipedia.
Polkinghorne has written 30 books, and has been translated into 18 languages.
 25 of them are concerning science and religion, often for a popular
audience, including:
1.The Way the World is : The Christian Perspective of a Scientist (1984 -
revised 1992) ISBN 0-281-04597-6
2. One World (SPCK/Princeton University Press 1987; Templeton Foundation
Press, 2007) ISBN 978-1-59947-111-2
3. Science and Creation (SPCK/New Science Library, 1989; Templeton
Foundation Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-59947-100-6
4. Science and Providence (SPCK/New Science Library, 1989; Templeton
Foundation Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-932031-92-8
5. Reason and Reality (SPCK/Trinity Press International 1991)
6. Quarks, Chaos and Christianity (1994; Second edition SPCK/Crossroad
2005) ISBN 0-281-04779-0
7. The Faith of a Physicist - published in the UK as Science and Christian
Belief (1994) ISBN 0-691-03620-9
8. Serious Talk (Trinity Press International/SCM Press, 1996)
9. Scientists as Theologians (1996) ISBN 0-281-04945-9
10. Beyond Science (CUP 1996)
11. Searching for Truth (Bible Reading Fellowship/Crossroad, 1996)
12. Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN
0-300-08003-4
13. Science and Theology (SPCK/Fortress 1998) ISBN 0-8006-3153-6
14. The End of the World and the Ends of God (Trinity Press International,
2000) with Michael Welker
15. Traffic in Truth (Canterbury Press/Fortress, 2000)
16. Faith, Science and Understanding (2000) SPCK/Yale University Press
ISBN 0300083726
17. The Work of Love editor (SPCK/Eerdmans 2001)
18. The God of Hope and the End of the World (Yale University Press, 2002)
ISBN 0-300-09211-3
19. The Archbishop's School of Christianity and Science(York Courses, 2003)
20. Living with Hope (SPCK/Westminster John Knox Press, 2003)
21. Science and the Trinity: The Christian Encounter With Reality (2004)
ISBN 0-300-10445-6 (a particularly accessible summary of his thought)
22. Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science & Religion (SPCK 2005)
ISBN 0-300-11014-6
23. Quantum Physics & Theology: An Unexpected Kinship (SPCK 2007) ISBN
9780281057672
24. From Physicist to Priest, an Autobiography SPCK 2007 ISBN
978-0-281-05915-7
I have not read items 1, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 24.
Items 2, 3, 4 form a classic trilogy. The three small books are largely
complementary to each other.
Item 5 is an extension of items 2,3,4. Here Polkinghorne says more about
chaos theory than in his earlier books.
Item 7 contains the Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh. This
is a larger and more comprehensive book than those I have previously
mentioned.
Item 9 gives a comparison between the views of Barbour, Peacocke, and
Polkinghorne.
Item 10 is a discussion of the nature of science and its limitations.
Included are anecdotes and Polkinghorne’s assessment of Dirac, Salam,
Gell-Mann, Feynman and Hawking.
Item 12 contains the Terry Lectures given at Yale Univeristy. A small book.
Item 13 is a textbook based on a course that Polkinghorne gave at General
Theological Seminary, New York. The last chapter touches on ethical
issues.
Item 16 examines two relationships in depth. The first is the divine
self-limitation in creation. The second is the nature of time and God’s
involvement in it.
Item 17 is a collection of essays by various people on kenotic theology.
Item 18 is on eschatology – this is an interesting read though necessarily
somewhat speculative.
Item 21. In his early books Polkinghorne generally moved from science
towards theory (as one would expect from a scientist who became a
theologian. In his later books he moved more in the opposite direction,
starting from Trinitarian and incarnational theology. Also, as one would
expect, he digs deeper into theology.
Item 22. In this book Polkinghorne discusses such things as the nature of
time and God’s relation to it, the interrelationships of the world’s
faiths, the problem of evil, and practical ethical issues relating to
genetic advances.
Item 23 is a recent, more specialized book. This is a small book in which
Polkinghorne shows that science and religion are two rational structures
between which there are significant homologies.
Polkinghorne has also written five science books:
25.The Analytic S-Matrix (CUP 1966, jointly with RJ Eden, PV Landshoff and
DI Olive)
26.The Particle Play (W. H. Freedman, 1979)
27. Models of High Energy Processes (CUP 1980)
28. The Quantum World (Longmans/Princeton University Press, 1985; Penguin
1986; Templeton Foundation Press 2007) ISBN 9780691023885
29. Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (2002) OUP ISBN 0-19-280252-6
I do not recommend item 25 (specialized, dated), though it is coauthored
by Peter Landshoff, with whom I shared a tutorial group (4 students) at St
John’s College, Cambridge. Item 28 is a useful introduction to its title
subject. I have not read the other items.
Don

> For Christmas I got some money for books, and I'm wanting (among other
> things) to obtain and read a more complete collection of John
> Polkinghorne's
> writings. I have _Belief in God in an Age of Science_ (thank you, Ted
> Davis,
> for the recommendation a couple years ago), but I'm confused by the large
> number of offerings of classic, new and reissued titles. I'd appreciate
> hearing from anyone who has read all of his works or at least has a good
> understanding of which two or three titles comprise the most complete and
> up-to-date presentation of his ideas.
>
> I saw John Burgeson's book review of _One World_ in the latest PSCF. He
> mentions the following triad of classic/new edition books:
> 1) One World (1986, 2007)
> 2) Science and Creation (1988, 2006)
> 3) Science and Providence (1989, 2005)
>
> At the meeting in Edinburgh I saw many other titles that intrigued my such
> as _The God of Hope and the End of the World_. I'm just not sure how all
> these books are related. I suspect that many of the them are largely
> redundant. Which of the newer ones really have something new or
> substantially better developed than the earlier ones?
>
> Thanks in advance for the advice.
>
> Doug Hayworth
>

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Received on Mon Dec 31 05:18:42 2007