Introduction

In recent years, the academic study of the interactions of science and religion has been expanding rapidly. Of primary importance in this expansion has been the realisation that many writers in this field – often following the pioneering lead of Ian Barbour (see, for example, Barbour 1998) – have treated it in a rather restrictive way, seeing ‘science’ in terms of the physical sciences and ‘religion’ in terms of Christianity (usually Western, Protestant Christianity, to boot). There has also been an increasing realisation of the historical contingencies that have led to the words ‘science’ and ‘religion’ carrying the resonances and nuances that they do in the Anglophone world today, to the extent that it has even been argued that, as modern constructs, a conflict between them has been built into their very foundations (Harrison 2015, 79–81).