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© A. Marcus J. Robbins 2014

In the last three decades, as I became more and more interested in how we live, move and have our being (both scientifically and theologically) several writers have helped me to form a coherent viewpoint - all of them scientists with a strong religious faith.

David Goyder (my father-in-law) wrote "Facing up to Reality". He offers a rational approach to the Christian faith. His key argument is that we have only three sources of knowledge: sense-based, instinct and intuition - as we have got more materialistic, we have lost our intuitive faculty which is key for understanding spiritual ideas.

Iain McGilchrist wrote "The Master and his Emissary". He argues that our divided brain has determined development of the Western world. Our behaviour has been dominated by logical and analytical left brain thinking, at the expense of the intuitive and holistic right brain. This supports Goyder's ideas. We need to learn from Eastern thought.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks builds on McGilchrist's ideas.  He wrote "The Great Partnership" to explore the ways our two brains work. One half breaks things down into constituent parts to see how they mesh and interact (science). The other half joins things together to tell stories, form relationships, and provide meaning (religion). We need both.

Fr. Pierre Teilard de Chardin and his writings (especially "The Phenomenon of Man") have helped reconcile theological ideas of creation with scientific theories of evolution.  A key concept is that we now have the capacity for self-reflection and are developing a supermind (noosphere), bringing us closer to the divine.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, in his books "A New Science of Life" and "The Science Delusion" has challenged the current materialistic mindset by being brave enough to carry out research into so-called paranormal abilities, at the same time proposing hypotheses for the extended mind, morphic fields and morphic resonance.

John David Garcia wrote "Creative Transformation" - not widely known - which is billed as a practical guide for maximizing creativity. He was inspired by Teilhard for many of his ideas, and suggests ways of putting them  into practice by forming communities or teams. He considers that love depends on maximising the creativity of others.

Dr. Mark Williams (a college rowing friend) co-authored with Danny Penman "Mindfulness - a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world." This helps to explain and practice the idea of meditation, which is an aspect of living that has been neglected and which holds the key to becoming whole again as body/soul.