Way to the Dwelling of Light: How Physics Illuminates Creation

by Guy Consolmagno

And the Lord spoke to Job out of the whirlwind: Do you know the way to the dwelling of light?

Was God merely reprimanding Job for his presumption? Or was He also issuing an invitation to explore? In The Way to the Dwelling of Light, Guy J. Consolmagno, S. J., shows us how our religious experience can illuminate our understanding of physics of light and how, in that light, we can see what modern physics shows us in God's creation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0268019541
• ISBN13: 9780268019549
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Most enthusiastically recommended

This is the most remarkable book I have read in a long time, and will be near the top of my reread list. Most enthusiastically recommended.The author is an MIT graduate, a Jesuit brother, and an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory. Only such a polymath could have written this intriguing book.For one thing, it contains the clearest popularization of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle that I have ever seen. At last I understand why those who say they understand it probably don't.The science is presented, so far as possible, in terms that should be accessible to any likely reader. For example, there's a particularly charming description of Brownian motion in terms of brownies in a playground.The religion is presented quite concisely. After all, the book is about how physics illuminates creation, and the bulk of the book has to present physics. The author is entirely successful in showing that there is no conflict between true science and true religion.There are a great many amusing anecdotes as well. Since I have read more than a few popular science books, inevitably some were old friends, but many were completely new to me, such as the one about Planck's Constance. Perhaps more important are the brief allusions to Father Grimaldi (who named the phenomenon of diffraction) and Bishop Oresme.There are a few minor flaws, such as the brief discussion of the mathematician Goedel being, at best, woefully incomplete, which is too bad. A full understanding of Goedel would be helpful to the author's theses.In short, this book has my highest recommendation.

Basic science - for an understanding of God's universe

This appealing, highly readable book does not, as I anticipated, discuss in great detail a religious view of science, nor a scientific view of religion. Instead it presents key aspects of relativity and the quantum and wave theories of light, in a way that makes sense to readers with very little exposure to advanced physics or mathematics. The trick is that it approaches the subject from the perspective of one who understands and cares about the challenges science often seems to pose for devout Christians. Along the way, it becomes clear that there is neither any real conflict, nor any great interdependence, between the physicist's view of the universe and that of mainstream Christianity. The conversational, sometimes humorous style helps the reader concentrate on an inherently difficult subject. Brother Guy's approach does not give the reader all the answers, by any means - but it provides an outstanding basis for educated discussion.