
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
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.
2007
Journal Article
Moral progress and early modern science
Harrison, Peter (2007). Moral progress and early modern science. Historically Speaking, 9 (1), 13-14. doi: 10.1353/hsp.2007.0000
2007
Book Chapter
Reinterpreting nature in early modern Europe : Natural philosophy, biblical exegesis, and the contemplative life
Harrison, Peter (2007). Reinterpreting nature in early modern Europe : Natural philosophy, biblical exegesis, and the contemplative life. The word and the world : Biblical exegesis and early modern science. (pp. 25-44) edited by Kevin Killeen and Peter J. Forshaw. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230206472
2006
Journal Article
The Bible and the emergence of modern science
Harrison, Peter (2006). The Bible and the emergence of modern science. Science and Christian Belief, 18 (2), 115-132.
2006
Journal Article
Miracles, early modern science, and rational religion
Harrison, Peter (2006). Miracles, early modern science, and rational religion. Church History, 75 (3), 493-510. doi: 10.1017/S0009640700098607
2006
Journal Article
Science and dissent
Harrison, Peter (2006). Science and dissent. Minerva, 44 (2), 223-227. doi: 10.1007/s11024-006-0011-y
2006
Book Chapter
The natural philosopher and the virtues
Harrison, Peter (2006). The natural philosopher and the virtues. The philosopher in early modern Europe : The nature of a contested identity. (pp. 202-228) edited by Conal Condren, Stephen Gaukroger and Ian Hunter.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2006
Book Chapter
Disjoining wisdom and knowledge : Science, theology, and the making of western modernity
Harrison, Peter (2006). Disjoining wisdom and knowledge : Science, theology, and the making of western modernity. Wisdom or knowledge? : Science, theology and cultural dynamics. (pp. 51-72) edited by Hubert Meisinger, Willem B. Drees and Zbigniew Liana. London: T & T Clark International.
2006
Journal Article
Science and “Religion”: Constructing the boundaries
Harrison, Peter (2006). Science and “Religion”: Constructing the boundaries. The Journal of Religion, 86 (1), 81-106. doi: 10.1086/497085
2006
Book Chapter
The 'Book of nature' and early modern science
Harrison, Peter (2006). The 'Book of nature' and early modern science. The book of nature in early modern and modern history. (pp. 1-26) edited by Klaas van Berkel and Arie Johan Vanderjagt. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.
2006
Book Chapter
Having dominion : Genesis and the mastery of nature
Harrison, Peter (2006). Having dominion : Genesis and the mastery of nature. Environmental stewardship : Critical perspectives, past and present. (pp. 17-31) edited by R. J. Berry. London: T & T Clark International.
2006
Journal Article
Reassessing the Butterfield Thesis
Harrison, Peter (2006). Reassessing the Butterfield Thesis. Historically Speaking, 8 (1), 7-10. doi: 10.1353/hsp.2006.0007
2006
Journal Article
Rejoinder to Gillispie, Lindberg, and Shea
Harrison, Peter (2006). Rejoinder to Gillispie, Lindberg, and Shea. Historically Speaking, 8 (1), 16-17. doi: 10.1353/hsp.2006.0001
2005
Journal Article
“Fill the earth and subdue it”: Biblical warrants for colonization in seventeenth century England
Harrison, Peter (2005). “Fill the earth and subdue it”: Biblical warrants for colonization in seventeenth century England. Journal of Religious History, 29 (1), 3-24. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9809.2005.00258.x
2005
Book Chapter
Physico-theology and the mixed sciences : The role of theology in early modern natural philosophy
Harrison, Peter (2005). Physico-theology and the mixed sciences : The role of theology in early modern natural philosophy. The science of nature in the seventeenth century. (pp. 165-183) edited by Peter R. Anstey and John A. Schuster. Dordrecht The Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/1-4020-3703-1_7
2004
Book Chapter
"Priests of the Most High God, with respect to the book of nature": The vocational identity of the early modern naturalist
Harrison, Peter (2004). "Priests of the Most High God, with respect to the book of nature": The vocational identity of the early modern naturalist. Reading God's world: The scientific vocation. (pp. 55-80) edited by Angus Menuge. St Louis, MO, United States: Concordia Publishing.
2004
Book Chapter
Morgan, Thomas (d 1743)
Harrison, Peter (2004). Morgan, Thomas (d 1743). Oxford dictionary of national biography. (pp. 147-149) Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/19239
2004
Book Chapter
Was Newton a voluntarist?
Harrison, Peter (2004). Was Newton a voluntarist?. Newton and Newtonianism: New studies. (pp. 39-64) edited by J. E. Force and S. Hutton. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
2004
Book Chapter
Design
Harrison, Peter (2004). Design. Europe 1450-1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. (pp. II, 132-134) edited by Jonathan Dewald. New York: Simon and Schuster.
2004
Book Chapter
Noah’s flood and the Western imagination
Harrison, Peter (2004). Noah’s flood and the Western imagination. Flood: Essays across the current. (pp. 1-28) edited by Paul Thom. Lismore, NSW, Australia: Southern Cross University Press.
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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