A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBATE ON SCIENCE AND FAITH BY CHRISTIAN STUDENTS FROM ABIDJAN

• Published in: Zygon®
• Main Authors: Bom, Klaas, van den Toren, Benno
• Other Authors: Templeton World Charity Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of the Humanities 2017
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12360; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fzygo.12360; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/zygo.12360

Abstract The science and faith debate is dominated by Western voices. In order to enrich this debate, the authors study the discourses of different groups of Christian academics and master's students in francophone Africa. This article describes the process of reconstructing and analyzing the discourse of a group of master's students from Abidjan (Ivory Coast) with the help of group model building and focus groups. Three characteristic features that emerge from this discourse include the foundational position of faith, the central role of truth, and the ambiguous connotations of the term “science” in this context. The reconstructed discourse is then brought into conversation with the North Atlantic debate, with a special focus on the concept of scientism.