Intersections of Religion and Astronomy

Aaron Ricker received his PhD from McGill University. His publications include Ancient Letters and the Purpose of Romans (2020). His research interests include the social-scientific analysis of religion, biblical literature, and popular culture. Christopher J. Corbally is Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Arizona, a research astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, and President of the National Committee for Astronomy, Vatican City State, International Astronomical Union. His publications include The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution, with Margaret Boone Rappaport (2019). Darry Dinnell received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from McGill University. He has taught at McGill and at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan.

Introduction; Part 1 Intersections of Astronomy and Religion: Ancient and Post-Ancient Worlds; 1 Religion and Cosmology-John T. Fitzgerald; 2 Calling Down the Spirits in the Sky: Blackfoot Astronomy and Sense of The Sacred-Eldon Yellowhorn; 3 To Reverently Bestow the Seasons: Calendrical Narratives in Early China and Rome-Rebecca Robinson; 4 Celestial Deities in the Flat-Earth Buddhist Cosmos and Astrology-Jeffrey Kotyk; 5 Early Islamic Encounters with the Rains Stars of pre-Islamic Arabian Astronomy-Danielle Adams; 6 Cosmology and Religious Culture in Jewish and Byzantine Art-Shulamit Laderman; 7 In Search of the Stars of David: Situating the Rabbinic Jewish Astronomical Tradition in World Cultural Astronomy Scholarship-Andrea D. Lobel; Part 2 The European Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution; 8 The Cosmos of a Big God: Brahe, Kepler, Bruno and the Sizes of the Stars in a Copernican Universe-Christopher M. Graney; 9 Apocalyptic Themes in Isaac Newton’s Astronomical Physics-Stephen D. Snobelen; 10 Georges Lemaître’s Dual Life in Cosmology and Theology-Simon Mitton and Rodney D. Holder; 11 Albert Einstein’s Cosmic Religion-Nicholas Campion; Part 3 The Modern World; 12 Market Predictions: Astrology in Modern India-Parna Sengupta; 13 Faster than the Speed of NASA: The Tenth Planet, Prophecy and the Universalization of a Gujarati Village Goddess-Darry Dinnell; 14 Radiance and Darkness: Japanese Buddhist Cosmographies-Melissa Anne-Marie Curley; 15 Abductions Angelic and Alien: The Changing Cosmologies of Otherworldly Journeys-James F. McGrath; 16 Astrophysics and Religion-Arnold O. Benz; 17 The Epistemology of Flat Earth Theory: Evidentialism, Suspicion, and the Ethics of Belief-Jennifer Guyver; Part 4 Future Directions; 18 Astrobiology, Astroethics, and Astrotheology in Conversation-Grace Wolf-Chase; 19 Religious Traditions and Religious Imagination in Cosmos Contexts-John Hart; 20 Wonder Brokers: Scientific Wonder as Spiritual Authority in the Cosmos Series (1980 and 2014)-Aaron Ricker; Conclusion