Life & Work Magazine
Life & Work Magazine


1 mins

THE GREAT MYSTERY

Science, God and the Human Quest for Meaning

Written by: Alister McGrath

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton

Price: £20

After dipping into other areas of interest, the best selling author and renowned commentator, Alister McGrath, the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University has returned to his great passion – the science and religion debate.

This time he considers the question of human identity, seeking answers to some of the ‘big’ questions, such as ‘Who are we?’’, ‘Why are we here?’, and ‘Are we alone?’ The book is an expansion of an opening keynote lecture delivered at the 2015 conference of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University.

He seeks to demonstrate what religion can add to the answers to those questions, alongside the fields of biology and anthropology.

Written, as always, in accessible and lively language, McGrath endeavours to answer the big questions that have long engaged the minds of humankind relating to existence and the innate human quest for meaning.

In concluding the work, McGrath writes: “The approach to the mystery of human identity and meaning set out in this book is both informed by science and nourished and enriched by the Christian tradition. We indeed are ‘meaning seeking animals’. Just as we seek food in order that we may survive, so we seek meaning in order that we may flourish.”

Endorsement for the work has come from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who has described the work as ‘Another splendid contribution from Alister McGrath to the intellectual treasury of belief.’

This article appears in the July 2017 Issue of Life and Work

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This article appears in the July 2017 Issue of Life and Work