Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie (BA, MDiv, MSc, PhD)
Lecturer in Theology and Science

Address
- Street
-
School of Divinity
Mound Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
I work at the intersection of theology and the sciences, and am particularly involved with questions surrounding the human mind, the relationship between God and the physical world, divine action, the phenomenology and cognitive development of religious belief, and the complex ways in which scientific research can play a role in constructive theological scholarship. Current research interests also include theistic naturalisms, epistemology and psychology of religious intuition, the neuropsychology of religious experience, and the cognitive science of belief formation.
CV

Qualifications
BA (Major: Philosophy and Religion, Minors: Biology and Psychology): Spring Arbor University, 2008
MDiv: Princeton Theological Seminary, 2012
MSc (Science and Religion): University of Edinburgh, 2014
PhD (Science and Religion): University of Edinburgh, 2017
Responsibilities & affiliations
Council Member of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT)
Research activities
- All in the Head? Science-Engaged Theology and the New Science of Psychedelics
- Divine Action and the Human Mind
- With God in Mind: Spiritual Technologies and the Experience of Belief
- Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences (Journal)
- ESSSAT Council (European Society for the Study of Science and Theology) (External organisation)
- Theology in Scotland (Journal)
- "Wait, but why?" Challenging the Intuitive Force of Substance Dualism
- God and the 'Hard Problem': Does Religion Need Consciousness to Remain a Mystery?
- God, Mind, and Neurobiology: Matters of the Soul
- Vice-Convener, Theological Forum of the Church of Scotland (External organisation)
-
Wait, but why? Challenging the intuitive force of substance dualism
(15 pages)
In:
Scientia et Fides, vol. 9, pp. 241-255
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2021.009
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Integrated physicality and the absence of God: Spiritual technologies in theological context
(18 pages)
In:
Modern Theology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12684
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
20th and 21st century Protestant voices on nature and science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780567680457.ch-014
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Mind and matter: Panpsychism and its alternatives
(9 pages)
In:
Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences, vol. 7, pp. 1-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1628/ptsc-2020-0002
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Editorial (Published) -
[Review of] N. D. Cartwright and J. S. K. Ward, eds., Rethinking Order: After the Laws of Nature and [Review of] T. M. Crisp, S. L. Porter and G. A. Ten Elshof, eds., Neuroscience and the Soul: The Human Person in Philosophy, Science and Theology
In:
Modern Believing, vol. 61, pp. 55-58
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Pascal Boyer. Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create
(5 pages)
In:
Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 108-112
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1628/ptsc-2019-0010
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Divine Action and the Human Mind
(384 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108568609
Research output: › Book (Published) -
The divine action 'problem'? An Eastern Orthodox challenge to science and theology
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Magnets, magic, and other anomalies: In defense of methodological naturalism
In:
Zygon, vol. 53, pp. 1064-1093
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12473
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The physicalized mind and the gut-brain axis: Taking mental health out of our heads
In:
Zygon
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12404
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)