The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion

This book is a real gift; factual and humanistic, and beautifully written.

I am a retired biomedical research scientist. Over the last three years I participated in a unique program called Science for Ministry at the Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS). This program was funded by a large grant from The John Templeton Foundation. During the course of the program I participated in almost a dozen mini-courses on topics related to science and theology. The courses were taught by both PTS faculty and guest lecturers. Participants were ordained pastors and scientists from their congregations, and others with training in either ministry, theology, or science and in some case all of those fields of study. It was an outstanding visionary program. As a participant I was assigned many books to read, given dozens more books, and heard recommendations and citations on many other relevant books. One book I stumbled upon was Barbara Brown Taylor's, The Luminous Web. Barbara Brown Taylor is known widely for her beautiful and insightful sermons and books on faith and religion. She has been ranked as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the country. As an ordained Episcopal priest she served for many years as a church pastor in Atlanta, Georgia. She currently holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. Barbara Brown Taylor has no formal training in science, but she has a wide circle of friends that includes some of the best minds in the sciences. As a scientist with a long standing interest in the conversation between science and religion I can say without reservation that Barbara Brown Taylor "gets it." The Luminous Web is an excellent place to get a broad introduction to all of the most interesting topics in the science and theology dialogue. She is elegant and insightful. I have developed and taught my own course in science and theology within my own faith community, and anyone who asks me for a recommendation to a good book to get started thinking about this faith-expanding conversation, I will point them to Barbara Brown Taylor's, The Luminous Web. I have not found a better more concise primer on science and theology. Highly Recommended.

Barbara Brown Taylor presents well thought out essays connecting the mysteries of faith and the astounding universe that we live in. Beautifully thought provoking.

There are some sublime passages in this book. Very accessible to nonscientists and amateur theologians. It may be impossible to entirely bridge worldviews but this is a great start.

I have yet to read a book by Barbara Brown Taylor that I would give less than five stars. Since my first encounter with her writing when I was a seminary student in the 80s through her book The Preaching Life, I have been a fan of this fine thinker and writer. She is an outstanding story teller who uses this well developed gift to exquisitely connect a life of faith and spiritual awareness to the experiences of daily life without the weight of dogma. An illumined mind which graciously offers her insights to the reader. This book subtly and wisely suggests that Science and Faith are not only compatible, but are inseparable. BBT leads the reader to grasp that each discipline informs and is made richer by the other and we become more aware that the sum of Science and Faith provides a richness beyond any notion of either/or..

The book was difficult to find the flow.I’m still working through it.

This was a life changing book for me. Barbara Brown Taylor helped me to see the profound spirituality behind Chaos Theory. And she helped me see that "Chaos Theory" is a misnomer. The theory is not about chaos anymore than it is about an underlying pattern in the universe. Chaos Theory says that we can't have "chaos" without an underlying pattern and vice versa. More importantly, Chaos Theory, echoes the insights of mysticism--that everything is connected to everything else and that seemingly insignificant decisions can have a profound income on the final outcome of events.As many others have noted, Barbara Brown Taylor's wordsmithing is in a class of its own. Her most eloquent turns of phrase urge the reader to read and re-read many passages over and over again.Barbara Brown Taylor persuades the reader that there is in deed mysticism in the New Science, Chaos Theory included.Instead of the mechanistic universe that Newton envisioned, at the quantum level, the universe looks like a "luminous web," in which everything is connected to everything else. As the mystics have told us there is an underlying unity in the universe that holds everything together and that is in deed Mysterious with a capital M. -Amos Smith (author of Healing The Divide)

I’m just starting to scratch the surface of this idea of the luminous web, it I’m incredibly excited about the possibilities it brings. This is a great book at or near the beginning of this journey (or dance?). The author does a great job of fanning the flames of curiosity of god being more than the old man in the sky that controls everything. Great book to read.

Great book. Will help to work through with others the relationship between science and faith and then explore the relationship between God and humanity. Blessings on all who share.

For those of us who are not professional scientists or theologians but want to consider in a calm and sensible way how science and Faith interact and inform each other this short book provides an excellent foundation to further study. The essays are brief, straightforward, enlightening and not technical. Ideal for the non-specialist enquirer.

A luminous web of light.Chaos, complexity, visible and invisible. We are all one. God is all in all. One.

Mind Boggling!!!

As near to perfect as one can get looking at the relationship between science and religion. Written so well and simply with a great depth of understanding and humility. Thanks rev. Taylor.