User:Firefly322/Physicist and Christian

Physicist and Christian: A dialogue between the communities (1961) is a book by William G. Pollard. Much of the attention given to the book such as its two page review in Time magazine has been attributed to the fact that Pollard was not only a well-respected physicist but also an Anglican priest. The book deliberately avoids specific subject matter differences between religion and science, focusing on both religion and science as human communities. An important theme is the idea that human knowledge--scientific or religious--can be developed only by those, like Pollard, who have "fully and freely" given themselves to a human community, whether to Physics or Christianity or some other, e.g., the United States Marine Corp.

Contents
Six chapters. The first chapter Community vs. Subject Matter discusses the benefits of focusing on science and religion as communities, outlining 5 common frameworks in which religion and science are routinely compared. The second chapter Science and Christianity as Communities begins by mentioning the work of the well-respected sociologist George Homans and anthropologist Robert Redfield selecting six methods from Redfield's The Little Community (University of Chicago Press, 1956) with which to study and compare the religion and science communities. In the third chapter The Reality of Spirit, Pollard uses the United States Marine Corp as an example of another community in to order compare it with the religion and science communities and to better explain ancient and modern ideas of spirit.

Reviews

 * The Christian Century v. 79 (Feb. 28 1962).
 * Library Journal (1876) v. 86 (Sept. 1 1961).
 * The New York Times Book Review (Dec. 31 1961).
 * Time v. 78 (Oct. 13 1961).
 * "The New Heaven" Friday, Oct. 13, 1961

Futher reading

 *  Pollard, William G. Physicist and Christian: a dialogue between the communities (1st published 1961; 2nd pub. 1964), Seabury Press ( full text