Overcoming Reductionism and Crafting a New Synthesis: Theodicy Confronting Pain and Suffering

This book explores and sheds light on the contemporary discourse between science and religion. Employing the methodological approach of modern science, Overcoming Reductionism aims to explain natural phenomena not in isolation from philosophical or theological interpretations. The book then focuses on the concept of pain. Although pain is a phenomenon familiar to all humans, defining it exclusively in terms of nociception proves challenging. This book therefore delves into the intricate nature of the phenomenon, critically acknowledging the way pain profoundly influences the construction of one’s existential meaning, particularly concerning matters of faith.

Piotr Roszak is an ordinary professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland and associated professor at University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, where he obtained his PhD in 2009. He’s an ordinary member of Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal ’Scientia et Fides’ dedicated to science-religion debate. His research interest includes the relationship between science and religion, philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, history of the Spanish-Mozarabic rite, analytic theology and the phenomenon of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. Piotr Roszak is also a co-founder and member of the Scientific Council of the ＂European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas＂ and a member of the publishing board of ＂Synderesis＂ (Spain), ＂Scrutari Fontes＂ (Italy). He has obtained several grants from the John Templeton Foundation, the National Science Centre in Poland, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Science in Spain. Piotr Roszak is the author of several monographs and collective works, has published more than 140 articles in scientific journals, and is one of the most cited scholars in the humanities according to the ranking of Elsevier and Stanford University (2% of most cited scholars in the world in 2021 and 2022).

Sasa Horvat is a philosopher who works as an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia. His areas of philosophical interest and the subjects of his published work encompass neurophilosophy, philosophy of religion, science, and religion, among others. He has successfully secured multiple grants from institutions such as the John Templeton Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in Croatia, and the University of Zagreb. Dr. Horvat has authored two books, one on the Cognitive Science of Religion and another on Martin Heidegger. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal ＂JAHR - European Journal of Bioethics＂ and actively participates in the work of several other scientific journals.