Peter Harrison

BSc, BA (Hons), PhD (Qld), MA (Yale), MA, DLitt (Oxford), FAHA
Professorial Research Fellow in Science and Religion

Email: peter.harrison@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Peter Harrison is a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Australia, and Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy at the University of Queensland. Before joining Notre Dame he was Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland. From 2014-2019 he was an Australian Laureate Fellow, and prior to this, the Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre at the University of Oxford. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Yale, Princeton, Otago, and the University of Chicago, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science. In 2011 he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, and in 2019 gave the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford.

  • Research Expertise and Supervision

    • History of Science
    • History of Religion
    • History of Philosophy

  • Books

    • Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024)
    • After Science and Religion: Fresh Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology, edited with John Milbank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022).
    • New Directions in Theology and Science: Beyond Dialogue, edited with Paul Tyson (London: Routledge, 2022).
    • Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία: νέες φιλοσοφικές και ιστορικές προσεγγίσεις (Beyond Science and Religion: New Philosophical and Historical Approaches) (Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021), edited with Sotiris Mitralexis and Paul Tyson.
    • Science without God? Historical Perspectives on Scientific Naturalism, edited with Jon Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. xv + 263. (9 reviews)
    • Narratives of Secularization (London: Routledge, 2017), pp. ix + 169.
    • Replaying the Tape of Life: Evolution and Historical Explanation, Special Issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, C, 58 (2016), edited with Ian Hesketh, pp. 122.
    • The Territories of Science and Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), pp. xiii +300.  (67 Reviews). Chinese, 科学与宗教的领地 tr. Butian Zhang (Beijing: Commercial Press, 2016); Portuguese, Os Territórios da Ciência e da Religião, tr. Djair Filho (Viçosa: Ultimo, 2017); Spanish, Los territorios de la ciencia y la religion, tr. Ignacio Silva (Bilbao: Grupo de Communición Loyola, 2020); Greek translation forthcoming.
    • Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. x +416, edited with Ronald Numbers and Michael Shank. (12 reviews)
    • The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2010). pp. xi +307.  (29 reviews). Portuguese, Ciência e Religião, tr. Eduardo Rodrigues da Cruz (São Paulo: Editora Santuário / Idéias & Letras, 2014), Spanish, Cuestions de Ciencia y Religión, tr. Ignacio Silva (Madrid: Loyola Grupo de Comunicacion, 2017).

  • Book chapters

    • ‘The History of Science and Theology’, St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. University of St Andrews, 2022-. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheHistoryofScienceandTheology.
    • Science and Religion as Historical Traditions’, in Peter Harrison and John Milbank (eds.), After Science and Religion,(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Gk. translation in Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson and Peter Harrison (eds.), Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία(Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021), pp. 41-63.
    • Why Religion is not Going Away and Science will not Destroy It’, in The God Beat, ed. Costica Bradatan and Ed Simon (Philadelphia: Broadleaf, 2021), pp. 163-8.
    • ‘Οι επικράτειες της επιστήμης και της θρησκείας’ (tr. of ch. 1 of Territories of Science and Religion), in Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson and Peter Harrison (eds.), Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία(Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021), pp. 17-39.
    • Ο προτεσταντισμός και η γένεση της επιστήμης’ (Protestantism and the Genesis of Science) in Sotiris Mitralexis, Paul Tyson and Peter Harrison (eds.), Πέρα από την Επιστήμη και τη Θρησκεία(Thessaloniki: Ropi, 2021), pp. 231-44.
    • The Conflict Narrative, Group Identity and the Uses of History’, in Bernard Lightman and Fern Elsdon-Baker (eds.), Identity in a Secular Age: Science, Religion and Public Perception (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020), pp. 131-142.
    • What’s in a Name? Physico-Theology in Seventeenth-Century England’, in Ann Blair and Kaspar von Greyerz (eds.), Physico-theology: Religion and Science in Europe 1650-1750 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), pp. 39-51.
    • Conflict, Complexity, and Secularization in the History of Science and Religion’, in Bernard Lightman (ed.), Rethinking History, Science, Religion (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), pp. 221-34.
    • Preface to Chinese tr. of The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science (Beijing: Commercial Press, 2019)
    • Laws of God or Laws of Nature: Natural Order in the Early Modern Period’, in Science without God? Historical Perspectives on Scientific Naturalism, ed. Harrison and Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 58-76.
    • Der Mythos eines ständigen Kampfes zwischen Wissenschaft und Religion’, in Andreas Losch und Frank Vogelsang (Hg), Die Vermessung der Welt und die Frage nach Gott (Bonn, 2018), ch. 1.
    • Neo-Harmonists’, in The Warfare between Science and Religion: The Idea that Wouldn’t Die, ed. Jeff Hardin, Ronald L. Numbers, and Ronald A. Binzley (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), pp. 239-57.
    • ‘Is Science-Religion Conflict always a Bad Thing? Augustinian Reflections on Christianity and Evolution’, in Evolution and the Fall, ed. William Cavanaugh and James K. A. Smith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017), pp. 204-226. Portuguese tr. in Evolução e Queda 2021
    • The Bible and the Emerging Scientific World View’, The New Cambridge History of the Bible, Vol. 3, from 1450-1750, ed. Euan Cameron (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 620-40.
    • Protestantism and the Making of Modern Science’, in Protestantism after 500 Years, ed. Mark Noll & Tal Howard (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 98-120. Chinese tr. 彼得·哈里森︱新教与现代科学的形成（上 in The Paper [Pengpai], October 31, Nov. 1, 2017.
    • Evolution, Providence, and the Problem of Chance’, in Abraham’s Dice: Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions, ed. Karl Giberson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 260-90.
    • Religion, Scientific Naturalism and Historical Progress’, in Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners, ed. Donald A. Yerxa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. 87-99.
    • Religion, Innovation and Secular Modernity’, in Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners, ed. Donald A. Yerxa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. 74-86.
    • That Religion has Typically Impeded the Progress of Science’, in Newton’s Apple and other Historical Myths about Science ed. Kostas Kampourakis and Ronald L. Numbers (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015), pp. 195-201.
    • Laws of Nature in Seventeenth-Century England: From Cambridge Platonism to Newtonianism’, in Eric Watkins (ed.), The Divine Order, the Human Order, and the Order of Nature: Historical Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 127-48.
    • ‘Early Modern Science and the Idea of Moral Progress’, in Donald Yerxa (ed.), British Abolitionism and the Question of Moral Progress in History(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2012)
    • The Conflict Thesis’ and ‘The Two Books Metaphor’ in R. J. Berry (ed.), The Lion Handbook to Science and Christianity (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2012), pp. 57-8, 60-1.
    • Laws of Nature, Moral Order and the Intelligibility of the Cosmos’, in Donald York, Owen Gingerich, and Shuang-Nan Zhang (eds.), The Astronomy Revolution: 400 Years of Explaining the Cosmos (New York: Taylor and Francis, 2011), pp. 375-86.
    • Introduction’ and ‘Natural History’, in Peter Harrison, Ronald L. Numbers and Michael H. Shank (eds.), Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 1-7; 117-148.
    • Early Christianity’ (with David C. Lindberg), in John Hedley Brooke and Ronald L. Numbers (eds.), Science and Religion around the World: Historical Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 67-91.  Spanish tr. in La ciencia y la religión en el mundo (Sal Terrae, 2020).
    • Adam Smith, Natural Theology, and the Natural Sciences’, in Adam Smith as Theologian, ed. Paul Oslington (London: Routledge, 2011), pp. 77-91.
    • The Cultural Authority of Natural History in Early Modern Europe’, in Denis Alexander and Ronald Numbers (eds.), Biology and Ideology: From Descartes to Dawkins (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 11-35.
    • Theology and Matter Theory in the Early Modern Period’, in Matter and Meaning, ed. Michael Fuller (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2010), pp. 39-56.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • ‘The Forgotten Proof: The Existence of God and Universal Consent', The Journal of Religion, 104 (2024), in press.
    • Essay Review of Paul Tyson, A Christian Theology of Science, Modern Theology, (2024), first view, DOI:10.1111/moth.12910.
    • ‘Normativity and the Critical Functions of Genealogy: The Case of Modern Science’, Modern Theology 39 (2023), 682-707.
    • ‘Naturalism and the Categories “Science” and “Religion”: A response to Josh Reeves’, Zygon 58 (2023), 98-108.
    • ‘What is Natural Theology? And Should we Dispense with it?’ Zygon 57 (2022), 114-140. Chinese tr. in 清华科史哲(Tsinghua Philosophy and History of Science).
    • ‘Defining and Defending the Humanities’, Zygon 56 (2021), 678-90.
    • ‘A Historian’s Perspective on Science-engaged Theology’, Modern Theology, 37 (2021), 476-82.
    • ‘Naturalism and the Success of Science’, Religious Studies, 56 (2020), 274-91.
    • ‘Credo quia impossibile: who said it and when?’ Notes and Queries, 64 (2017), 540-2.
    • ‘I Believe because it is Absurd’: The Enlightenment Invention of Tertullian’s Credo’, Church History, 86 (2017), 339-64.
    • ‘Science and Secularization’, Intellectual History Review 27 (2017), 47-70. Repr. in Harrison (ed.), Narratives of Secularization (London: Routledge, 2017). Chinese translation, “科学导致世俗化”？：流行叙事及其对立面 in Pengpai (‘The Paper’), 26 May, 2018, and  in Tsinghua Studies in Western Philosophy, 2018.
    • ‘Introduction: Narratives of Secularization’, Intellectual History Review 27 (2017), 1-6. Repr. in Narratives of Secularization (London: Routledge, 2017).  Repr. in Harrison (ed.), Narratives of Secularization (London: Routledge, 2017).
    • Science, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism’, Isis 107 (2016), 587-91.
    • Beliefs, Lebensformen, and Conceptual History’, Metascience 21 (2016), 363-370.
    • The Modern Invention of “Science-and-Religion”: What Follows?’, Zygon 51 (2016), 742-757.
    • Angels on Pinheads and Needles’ Points’, Notes and Queries, 63 (2016), 45-47.
    • What was Historical about Natural History?’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science C, 58 (2016), 8-16.
    • Evolution and Historical Explanation’, with Ian Hesketh, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science C, 58 (2016), 1-7.
    • The History of “Transhumanism”’, with Joseph Wolyniak, Notes and Queries 62 (2015), 465-7.
    • Sentiments of Devotion and Experimental Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century England’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 44(2014), 113-133.
    • Francis Bacon, Natural Philosophy and the Cultivation of the Mind’, Perspectives on Science 20 (2012), 139-158.
    • Adam Smith and the History of the Invisible Hand’, Journal of the History of Ideas 72 (2011), 29-49.  Repr. in Recent Developments in the Economics of Religion, ed. Paul Oslington (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2017).
    • Experimental Religion and Experimental Science in Early Modern England’, Intellectual History Review 21 (2011), 413-433.
    • A Scientific Buddhism?’, Zygon 45 (2010), 861-69. Chinese tr. https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/64930481
    • Religion and the Early Royal Society’, Science and Christian Belief 22 (2010), 3-22.

  • In the media

  • Awards

    • Sara H. Schaffner Visiting Professor, University of Chicago, 2023
    • Bampton Lectures (6), Oxford, 2019
    • Corresponding member, International Academy for the History of Science, 2019
    • Aldersgate Prize, 2015, for The Territories of Science and Religion.
    • Gifford Lectures (6) Edinburgh, 2010-11

  • Professional affiliations

    • Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
    • Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion
    • Corresponding Member International Academy for the History of Science
    • Senior Research Fellow, Ian Ramsey Centre, Oxford
    • Associate Editor, Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences, 2012-
    • Advisory Board, The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2013-
    • Advisory Board, Scientiae 2013-

    Editorial Boards:

    • Zygon: A Journal of Science and Religion, 2010-
    • Fides et Historia, 2011-
    • Journal of Early Modern Studies, 2012 –
    • Journal for the History of Knowledge 2019 –
    • Oxford University Press Science and Religion Series, 2017-
    • Brepols series on Science and Orthodox Christianity, 2017 -

  • Research grants

    • Templeton World Charity Foundation Grant, ‘After Science and Religion’, US$232,000, 2018-20
    • Issachar Fund Development Grant, US$20,000, 2017.
    • Australian Laureate Fellow, (AUD 2.6m) 2015-19
    • The Faraday Institute, Cambridge, UAB Grant, ‘Evolutionism, Atheism, and Mass Persuasion’, (£120,000) 2013-15
    • The Historical Society, Boston, RIHA Grant, ‘Religion, Naturalism, and Scientific Progress’ (US$100,000) 2012-14
    • The Historical Society, Boston, RIHA Grant, ‘Religion, History and the Secular’ (US$75,000), 2012-14
    • Templeton Word Charity Foundation Grant: ‘Science, Progress and History’.  ($800,000) 2011-14.
    • AHRC Research Fellowship, ‘Religion and the Origins of Modern Science’ (£63,000), 2010-11
    • Templeton Foundation Grant, ‘God, Philosophy, and Science: Science and Religion Programme Support for the Ian Ramsey Centre’, (US$1m) 2009-14.