
Overview
Background
Peter Harrison was educated at the University of Queensland and Yale University. In 2011 he moved to Queensland from the University of Oxford where he was the Idreos Professor of Science and Religion. At Oxford he was a member of the Faculties of Theology and History, a Fellow of Harris Manchester College, and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre. He is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Universityof Notre Dame, Australia, and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford's Ian Ramsey Centre. He has published extensively on the philosophical, scientific and religious thought of the early modern period, and is interested in secularization theory and historical and contemporary relations between science and religion. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Oxford, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and a corresponding member of the International Academy for the History of Science. In 2003, he recieved a Centenary Medal for 'service to Australian Society and the Humanities in the Study of Philosophy and Religion’. In 2011 he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh. He was awarded a DLitt by the University of Oxford in 2013, and delivered the Bampton Lectures at Oxford in 2019. From 2015-20 has was an Australian Laureate Fellow.
His twelve books include, most recently, Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age (Cambridge, 2024), After Science and Religion (Cambridge, 2022), co-edited with John Milbank, and The Territories of Science and Religion (Chicago, 2015), winner of the Aldersgate Prize.
Availability
- Emeritus Professor Peter Harrison is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science, The University of Queensland
- Bachelor of Arts, The University of Queensland
- Masters (Coursework), Yale University
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
- Doctoral Diploma, University of Oxford
- Australian Academy of the Humanities, Australian Academy of the Humanities
Research interests
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Intellectual History, Historical Relations between Science and Religion, History of Science, Religious History, History of Philosophy
Works
Search Professor Peter Harrison’s works on UQ eSpace
2010
Journal Article
Religion and the early Royal Society
Harrison, Peter (2010). Religion and the early Royal Society. Science and Christian Belief, 22 (1), 3-22.
2010
Book Chapter
‘Science’ and ‘religion’: Constructing the boundaries
Harrison, Peter (2010). ‘Science’ and ‘religion’: Constructing the boundaries. Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives. (pp. 23-49) Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511676345.003
2010
Book Chapter
Theology and matter theory in the early modern period
Harrison, Peter (2010). Theology and matter theory in the early modern period. Matter and meaning: Is matter sacred or profane?. (pp. 39-56) edited by Michael Fuller. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars.
2010
Book
The Cambridge companion to science and religion
Peter Harrison ed. (2010). The Cambridge companion to science and religion. Cambridge Companions to Religion, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CCOL9780521885386
2010
Journal Article
Introduction
Harrison, Peter (2010). Introduction. The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion, 1-18. doi: 10.1017/CCOL9780521885386.001
2010
Book Chapter
The cultural authority of natural history in early modern Europe
Harrison, Peter (2010). The cultural authority of natural history in early modern Europe. Biology and ideology: From Descartes to Dawkins. (pp. 11-35) edited by Denis R. Alexander and Ronald L. Numbers. Chicago, ILL, U.S.A.; London, U.K.: University of Chicago Press.
2009
Journal Article
Linnaeus as a second Adam? Taxonomy and the religious vocation
Harrison, Peter (2009). Linnaeus as a second Adam? Taxonomy and the religious vocation. Zygon, 44 (4), 879-893. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.01039.x
2009
Journal Article
The Bible and the rise of science: A rejoinder
Harrison, Peter (2009). The Bible and the rise of science: A rejoinder. Science and Christain Belief, 21 (2), 155-162.
2009
Book Chapter
That Rene Descartes originated mind-body distinction
Harrison, Peter (2009). That Rene Descartes originated mind-body distinction. Galileo goes to jail : And other myths about science and religion. (pp. 107-114) edited by Ronald L. Numbers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
2009
Book Chapter
Hermeneutics and natural knowledge in the reformers
Harrison, Peter (2009). Hermeneutics and natural knowledge in the reformers. Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic religions: Up to 1700. (pp. 341-362) edited by Jitse M. van der Meer, Scott Mandelbrote and Wim Janse. Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill. doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004171916.i-782.74
2009
Journal Article
Voluntarism and the origins of modern science: A reply to John Henry
Harrison, Peter (2009). Voluntarism and the origins of modern science: A reply to John Henry. History of Science, 47 (2), 223-231.
2009
Book Chapter
Herbert Butterfield and the scientific revolution : Reassessing the Butterfield thesis
Harrison, Peter (2009). Herbert Butterfield and the scientific revolution : Reassessing the Butterfield thesis. Recent Themes in the History of Science and Religion. (pp. 65-72) edited by Donald A. Yerxa. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press.
2008
Book Chapter
Hermeneutics and natural knowledge in the reformers
Harrison, Peter (2008). Hermeneutics and natural knowledge in the reformers. Brill's Series in Church History. (pp. 341-362) Brill Academic Publishers.
2008
Book Chapter
The development of the concept of the laws of nature
Harrison. Peter (2008). The development of the concept of the laws of nature. Creation: Law and probability. (pp. 13-36) edited by Fraser Watts. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. doi: 10.4324/9780429463525-2
2008
Journal Article
Religion, the Royal Society, and the rise of science
Harrison, Peter (2008). Religion, the Royal Society, and the rise of science. Theology and Science, 6 (3), 255-271. doi: 10.1080/14746700802206925
2007
Journal Article
Was there a scientific revolution?
Harrison, Peter (2007). Was there a scientific revolution?. European Review, 15 (4), 445-457. doi: 10.1017/S1062798707000440
2007
Journal Article
Historia’s History
Harrison, Peter (2007). Historia’s History. Metascience, 16 (2), 321-325. doi: 10.1007/s11016-007-9112-y
2007
Book
The Fall of man and the foundations of science
Harrison, Peter (2007). The Fall of man and the foundations of science. paper back edition 2009 ed. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/cbo9780511487750
2007
Book Chapter
Natural theology, deism, and early modern science
Harrison, Peter (2007). Natural theology, deism, and early modern science. Science, religion, and society : An encyclopedia of history, culture, and controversy. (pp. 426-440) edited by Arri Eisen and Gary Laderman. New York , NY, U.S.A.: M E Sharpe.
2007
Book Chapter
"The fashioned image of poetry or the regular instruction of philosophy?": Truth, utility, and the natural sciences in early modern England
Harrison, Peter (2007). "The fashioned image of poetry or the regular instruction of philosophy?": Truth, utility, and the natural sciences in early modern England. Science, literature, and rhetoric in early modern England. (pp. 15-36) edited by Juliet Cummins and David Burchell. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
Funding
Supervision
Availability
- Emeritus Professor Peter Harrison is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
An Investigation into the socio-cultural and/or religious influences on Young Earth Creationism in Queensland in the 1970s and early 1980s
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Ryan Williams, Associate Professor Tom Aechtner
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Doctor Philosophy
The Eternality of the Soul. Philosophical and Religious debates 1500-1800
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Philip Almond
Completed supervision
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Mortalism and the Making of Heterodoxy in Seventeenth-Century England
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Philip Almond, Dr James Lancaster
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Nature, the Fall, and the Secularisation of Early Modern Political Thought
Principal Advisor
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2017
Doctor Philosophy
The Origins of the "Conflict Thesis": Draper, White, and the Protestant Tradition
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Tom Aechtner, Associate Professor Ian Hesketh
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Providence and Natural Causation in Early Modern England
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Philip Almond
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Reading Morals: Charles Darwin and the Descent of Morality
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ian Hesketh
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2018
Doctor Philosophy
Measuring miracles in young-earth creationism
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Tom Aechtner
Media
Enquiries
Contact Emeritus Professor Peter Harrison directly for media enquiries about:
- Early modern intellectual history
- History of science
- Philosophy and religion
- Religion and philosophy
- Religion and science
- Science and religion
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