THE debate between science and religion features a recurrent issue famously posed by John Keats. The poet accused Isaac Newton of destroying “all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to prismatic colours”. To put it another way, modern science drains the world of wonder. The philosopher Helen De Cruz profoundly disagrees. Science depends on awe and wonder, she argues. These two “epistemic emotions” inspire the scientist to investigate and further ensure that the scientific enterprise is ever renewed, when the answers provided by science lead to better questions — which is to say, questions that inspire more wonder.
Her accessibly written book is a brief exploration of the history of wonder, casting an eye across ancient and modern traditions, in an effort to secure the place of wonder in modern life. Wonder is a technology, she proposes, which serves a human need for meaning; it can supply purpose, as for the scientist who investigates things, and can support habits that keep life feeling fresh. This less practical and more existential goal is the value of religion. For instance, a Christian practises the openness of wonder in liturgies that include phrases such as “Great is the mystery of faith.”
De Cruz is also clear that by describing wonder as a technology she doesn’t mean to reduce the intuition solely to an instrumental purpose, as if wonder were a mind-hack to make us happier or more productive. Rather, wonder can transform our stance towards others and the world as a whole, as writers such as Ursula Le Guin and Rachel Carson have argued: wonder invites us to value the natural world for its own sake and thereby encourages moral responsibility.
That said, Wonderstruck systematically ignores what is surely the most profound source of wonder, namely that all creatures and things depend for their existence upon a transcendent source that is also immanent within them: named, in the Christian tradition, God. So, while there is no doubt that we wonder at many things, great and small, something basic is lost if wonder is not recognised as a selfless response to the remarkable fact of being alive and being aware of that fact.
Science may not “unweave the rainbow”, as Keats feared. But, in presenting a case for wonder as driven by its value to us humans, as opposed to being a spontaneous acknowledgement of our divine wellspring, De Cruz does make wonder seem like a palliative against the fear that life might, ultimately, be meaningless.
Dr Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer.
Wonderstruck: How wonder and awe shape the way we think
Helen De Cruz
Princeton University Press £22
(978-0-691-23212-6)
Church Times Bookshop £19.80
