Professor Philip Clayton

Philip Clayton, Ph.D. is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University and Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology.
 
Philip is a philosopher and theologian specializing in the entire range of issues that arise at the intersection between science and religion. Over the last several decades he has published and lectured extensively on all branches of this debate, including the history of modern philosophy, philosophy of science, comparative religions, and constructive theology.
 
Philip earned his Ph.D. jointly from the Philosophy and Religious Studies departments at Yale University. In addition to a variety of named lectureships, he has held visiting professorships at the University of Cambridge, the University of Munich, and Harvard University.
 
Above all, his books and articles address the cultural battle currently raging between science and religion. Rejecting the scientism of Dawkins and friends, he argues, does not open the door to fundamentalism. Instead, a variety of complex and interesting positions are being obscured by the warring factions whose fight to the death is attracting such intense attention today.
 
Philip has drawn on the resources of the sciences, philosophy, theology, and comparative religious thought to develop constructive partnerships between these two great cultural powers. As a public intellectual he seeks to address the burning ethical and political issues at the intersection of science, ethics, religion, and spirituality (e.g., the stem cell debate, euthanasia, the environmental crisis, interreligious warfare). As a philosopher he works to show the compatibility of science with religious belief across the fields where the two may be integrated (emergence theory, evolution and religion, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness).
 
His books include Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society, Adventures in the Spirit: God, World, Divine Action, The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion, Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to Consciousness, In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being: Panentheistic Reflections on God’s Presence in a Scientific World, The Problem of God in Modern Thought, and In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World. Frankfurt Templeton Lectures 2006.
 
His papers include Neuroscience, the Person and God: An Emergentist Account, The Case for Christian Panentheism, Adaptation, Variation, or Extinction: How Can There be Theology after Darwin?, Eight Central Questions on Science and Religion, Belief and the Logic of Religious Commitment, Biology Meets Theology, Can Liberals Still Believe that God (Literally) Does Anything?, Spirituality as Spirit and Spirituality toward Spirit: A Critique of Jacques Derrida’s De l’Esprit, and Ethics and Rationality.
 
Watch Interview with Philip Clayton parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Watch Philip Clayton & Daniel Dennett Conversation, Philip Clayton and Tony Jones, Theo-Pub Q & A With Philip Clayton and Tony Jones, and Philip Clayton on Transforming Theology. Visit his Facebook page and his LinkedIn profile. Follow his Twitter feed.