Editorial for the June 2026 issue
Posted by Arthur C. Petersen on 2026-06-30
This issue [click here to browse the issue online; click here to view and download a PDF of the entire issue; and to order a printed copy for $9.99 (no-profit-to-journal price) through Amazon, choose for instance one of the following market places: US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, BE, IE, JP, CA or AU] begins with an Editorial essay by Christopher Harrington, who considers whether the pattern of suffering in the natural world can be reconciled with the expectation that creation reflects perfect benevolence; he argues that widespread suffering is structurally woven into the biological and psychological systems that sustain life.
Below, you will find a brief overview of the articles included in this issue, both in the general articles section and in three thematic sections, as well as an overview of books reviewed in the latest edition of Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology.
Articles
This issue contains nine articles in the general articles section. Sevcan Öztürk critically examines the current state of Islamic ecotheology; he argues that, while it has made valuable contributions to environmental thought, it remains largely confined within an ethical paradigm centered on moral responsibility. Jovana Isevski studies how Buddhism is mobilized in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital trilogy as both a critique of scientific hyperrationality and a resource for ecological ethics; she shows both the possibilities and limitations of Buddhism’s role in shaping ecological thought in the United States. Jianxin Liu presents a philosophical paradigm shift grounded in cellular biology, which repositions life, rather than human consciousness, as the ontological and epistemological foundation for understanding and participating in reality; he proposes that this paradigm offers a promising integrative approach to ontology, ethics and stewardship. Markus Lindholm, Erika Lynn Gray, Torbjørn Eftestøl, and Terje Sparby draw on Alfred Russel Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe a metaphysical view on evolution; they emphasize the mystical experience of evolution and give possible implications of evolutionary mysticism for deep ecology and environmentalism. Michael Keas and Paul Gould address “complex specified information” (CSI); they argue that CSI is an important feature of life and a kind of value that all life instantiates; they suggest a value theory (axiology) research program guided by the hypothesis that value itself is best understood as (primarily) normative rarity and show how this approach to axiology can be guided by perspectives derived from the integration of cosmology, biology, and information theory. Cornelius Hunter studies “cessationism,” a popular Christian doctrine that states that divine miracles, such as recorded in the New Testament, ceased to occur during or shortly after the Apostolic Era; he focuses on the relationship between cessationism and evolutionary thought and argues that cessationism forms a theological substrate upon which several significant evolutionary arguments and traditions were developed. Peter Lund Bullen provides a deep and interdisciplinary analysis of biblical intrinsic value in dialogue with contemporary environmental philosophy; he concludes that the Bible accords with a theocentric, objective, nonhierarchical, intrinsic final value theory, or in other words, that the intrinsic value is dependent on God, is real, does not differ in quantity, and is not reliant on a specific property. Bharath Sriraman compares Lurianic Kabbalah and Rigvedic cosmogony; he concludes that they articulate structurally homologous accounts of observer-instantiated reality and that both traditions articulate “recursive witnessing”—the recognition that observation is not unilateral but mutual, that every observer is simultaneously observed, that consciousness and reality co-constitute each other in an ongoing process without absolute origin or final completion. Finally, Mohammad Modabber Caharborj discusses Web3 ecosystems (the next evolution of the internet) as an emergent field of digital religion where decentralized infrastructures—spanning smart contracts, token economies, and symbolic interfaces—actively generate novel forms of ritual life; he proposes an approach to “distributed rituals analysis” to study these and other ritual forms.
IRAS 2025—Spiritual Experience
(by Calvin Chatlos)
What if spiritual experience is a real human capacity waiting to be opened and not “just” a belief? Across science, philosophy, and theology, researchers are exploring how people encounter a deeper inner core that can transform awareness and meaning, and improve connection. In the 2025 IRAS conference “Spiritual Experience: A Scientific, Philosophical and Theological Retreat,” organized by Calvin Chatlos and Barbara Whittaker-Johns, perspectives on this topic from science, philosophy, and theology were brought together under a shared framework for discussion and practice. In the conference, we aimed to deepen understanding of how intentional spiritual opening can foster meaning, healing, awe, connection, and planetary well-being. In the December 2024 issue of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, you can find Calvin Chatlos’ programmatic article on his Framework of Spirituality, which was the driving concept of the conference, as well as three invited pre-conference commentaries from science (Michael Winkelman), philosophy (Nick Hedlund), and theology (Fraser Watts).
Five articles (based on two plenary talks and three contributed papers) are published in this thematic section following the conference. Michael Winkelman (plenary speaker) and Andy Newberg offer a neurophenomenological perspective on the self and spirituality, with a focus on the right parietal lobe; they claim that the “affective core self” (which can be linked with right-hemisphere processes) corresponds directly to many characteristics of mystical experiences. Andrew Davis (plenary speaker) provides a process philosophy approach to “exceptional experience”; drawing on Whitehead, he addresses the “wild(er)ness of non-sensory perception” and he adds that Iain McGilchrist’s hemisphere hypothesis provides neuroscientific support for Whitehead’s “dual theory of perception.” Chuck Fowler brings another perspective to mental health, with his emphasis on the embeddedness of mental health in systemic health; he argues that systemic thinking is essential for the health of the planet, and to recover from “Systemic Abnormality Disorder.” Lijo Peter Kannoth addresses an ontological hermeneutics of being; by placing the yogic discipline of breath control in dialogue with Meister Eckhart’s mystical theology, he argues that both traditions “converge in affirming that true freedom and peace emerge not from self-assertion but from radical self-emptying and openness to the divine.” Finally, Paul Carr analyzes near-death experiences (NDEs) as spiritual transformations; he concurs with the conviction of one the medical doctors describing NDEs that the current views on the relationship between the brain and consciousness held by most physicians, philosophers, and psychologists are too narrow for a proper understanding and that humans cannot be reduced to their constituent parts.
The Spiritual Dimensions of Science
(by Brandon Vaidyanathan)
Two articles in this issue form a thematic section on the spiritual dimensions of science. Both articles draw on data from a large qualitative international study of physicists and biologists, the “Meaning and Mystery in Science” study (2024). In the first article, theologian Pui Him Ip develops a typology of six modes of contemplation and examines the variety of ways in which scientific practice might afford occasions for such contemplation. The second article by sociologist Stefano Sbalchiero and psychologist Peter Varga applies mixed-methods lexicometric analysis to examine how religious and nonreligious scientists describe transcendent experiences. They find among nonreligious scientists a form of “contemplative empiricism” where sustained observations yield reflexive moments that the authors term the “empirical sublime.” Among religious scientists, by contrast, they find that scientists process transcendent experiences in science through a “negotiated coexistence” with their faith traditions.
Boyle Lecture 2026
This third thematic section contains the 2026 Boyle Lecture, delivered by Iain McGilchrist under the title “God, the Brain, and the Nature of Truth,” as well as the response by Michael Reiss.
Books reviewed in Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology
Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology is a quarterly joint publication of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) and the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) and it is distributed free to all members of ESSSAT and ISSR. Here is the list of books reviewed in the Reviews issue of March 2026:
- Muhammad Yaseen Gada, Islam and Environmental Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024
- Harold G. Koenigand Charmin M. Koenig, Nothing More Important: A Book about Faith, independently published, 2023
- Harris Wiseman, The Myth of the Moral Brain: The Limits of Moral Enhancement, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016