The Penultimate Curiosity

Roger Wagner has been described by Charles Moore as the "best religious painter in Britain today". He gained first class honours in English Literature at Oxford, and then studied for three years at the Royal Academy before returning to live in Oxford and paint full time. Both The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge have his work in their permanent collections. He has produced several books of illustrated poems and translations of the Psalms. Since 2010 he has taught at the Ruskin School of Art. A book about his work Forms of Transcendence The Art of Roger Wagner by Chris Miller was published in 2009. His 2012 Gresham College lecture was published on the web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMb8rIQbTGc. His new stained glass window was installed in St Mary's Iffley in 2012. He was commissioned to paint the first portrait of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury, which in 2014 was hung in Auckland Castle.Andrew Briggs was elected in 2002 as the first holder of the newly created Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. After studying physics at Oxford he gained a PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where the inscription from the Psalms was placed over the entrance of the new laboratory at his initiative. He then studied for a degree in Theology at Cambridge, winning the Chase Prize for Greek, before returning to Oxford in 1980 to pursue an academic career in science. In what is now the Department of Materials he has been successively Royal Society Research Fellow, University Lecturer, Reader, and Professor. His scientific research focuses on materials and techniques for quantum technologies, in which non-classical superposition and entanglement are harnessed for future applications such as computers and information processors. Simultaneously his experiments also probe foundational questions such as the nature of reality in the context of quantum theory.

• PART I: In the Beginning I1: The First Men2: Tentasali3: Watauinawa4: The Garden of Eden Moment5: Primate Parallels6: Horizons of Curiosity7: Ultimate CuriosityPART II: God Driven Science8: The Lions of Miletus9: The Move to Athens10: Through the Academy DoorPART III: Encounters in Alexandria11: Two Students12: The Divided City13: Industrious Jack14: The Creation of the WorldPART IV: The Long Argument15: The Dream of Aristotle16: Al Ghazali's Pilgrimmage17: A Tale of Two Cities18: Imposed Silence19: Experimental Science20: The Universal LawPART V: The Open Book of Heaven21: Against Aristotle22: Free Philosophising23: The Freedom of Intellect24: Simplicius Reborn25: The CreationPART VI: Priests of Nature26: A New Era27: A Lutheran Astrologer28: The Experimental Philosophy29: The Oxonian SparklesPART VII: The Ocean of Truth30: Le Grand Newton31: The Beautiful System32: Mathematical Theologies33: The Coast of InfinityPART VIII: Voyages of Discovery34: Two Journeys35: The Mystery of Mysteries36: The Creed of SciencePART IX: In the Beginning II37: The Literary Inquest38: Breaking the Seals39: The Intellectual Picklock40: In a Strange Land41: By the waters of Babylon42: Adan and Adapa43: Ariadne's ThreadPART X: Through the Laboratory Door44: Science in a Time of Cholera45: A Visit to the Museum46: Experiments of Thought47: The Unity of Nature48: The Works of the LordPART XI: Epilogue

This book offers a fascinating perspective on the perennial human quest for understanding and meaning. Its two distinguished authors - with contrasting backgrounds - have meshed their expertise together to create a thought-provoking and original synthesis.