Where is wisdom to be found?
The Editor

Can we have faith in the universe?
Russell Stannard
Some scientists see the universe as a hostile place , a 'more-or-less farcical outcome of a chain of events'. Russell Stannard, who is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Open University and a lay minister in the Church of England, describes another, newer approach to cosmology which can allow the believer to claim that 'the simplest explanation of our friendly universe is in terms of a Designer God'.

Biotechnology, ecology and wisdom
Celia E. Deane-Drummond
How should we respond to the heated debate about genetically modified organisms? Celia Deane-Drummond, who is now senior lecturer in theology at Chester College of Higher Education, was for many years a plant physiologist. Here she looks at the benefits and risks of biotechnology and conludes that we need to develop a wisdom which includes an appreciation of the wider claims of justice 'as well as the more narrow problem-solving approach that is necessarily the approach of modern experimental science.'

When science becomes a superstition
Brian Appleyard

The challenge of evolution
Geoff Turnock
For some people the theory of evolution is the final scientific argument for atheism. Here, Geoff Turnock, an Anglican priest, who was until retirement a senior lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Leicester, offers a different argument. He shows in different ways how 'acceptance of evolutionary origins should surely enrich rather than diminish Christian theology'.

The internet, society and the Church
Peter Hunter OP
One of science's greatest successes has been in the technology of communication. Peter Hunter, a young Dominican, recently ordained, who took a degree in mathematics in Cambridge, describes the challenges and the dangers which the internet presents. But 'if Christianity could tame the wild peoples which Augustine found in these isles fifteen centuries ago, it can surely have a great effect in cyberspace'.

Can a scientist be objective about her faith?
Mary Douglas in conversation with Deborah Jones
Professor Mary Douglas is one of the world's best-known anthropologists. From her first book, The Lele of the Kasai, in 1963, to her latest, Leviticus as Literature, published in September by Oxford University Press, Dr Douglas engages with the study of religious beliefs with both professional detachment and commitment to Catholic Christianity. Earlier this year, at the conference of the Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain in which Dr Douglas read a paper on Leviticus and animals, she found time to speak briefly with our assistant editor, Deborah Jones, on her personal experiences as a Christian in a scientific milieu.

Praying the rosary
Timothy Radcliffe OP
October is the month when we celebrate the feast of the Holy Rosary. Last year, at the great annual rosary pilgrimage which the French Dominicans organise at Lourdes, the Master of the Order, Timothy Radcliffe, gave these reflections on the prayer which 'builds community and also propels us on our journey'.

Preaching and teaching the Word
John Udris
John Udris, who is the parish priest of St Teresa's, Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire, offers some reflections on the lectionary readings for the Sundays of November.

PASTORALIA

A university chaplaincy in your parish: friend or foe?
Margaret Fraser
What provision does the Church make for Catholics and other students in the many universities which there are now in Britain? How can parishes offer support to the chaplaincies, where there are any, and what can the chaplaincies do for them? Margaret Fraser, Catholic chaplain at Bristol University and member of the Bishops' Conference Committee for Theology, offers some suggestions.

Book review

Postscript:Christians and Jews
Lucy Beckett

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