Rediscovering Religion for Science and Technology Studies

Scholars working in the fields of Religious Studies and Science and Religion make a point to take note of advancements in the study of science and technology in society. Science and Technology Studies (STS), however, rarely engages with scholarship related to religion. The premise of this volume is, of course, that STS ought to take note of such research and that the field would benefit from doing so. This chapter presents a perspective on why STS has been reluctant to engage with religious disciplines, noting a curiously uncritical assumption of secularity. Science, scientists, and society are all assumed to be either inherently secular or on some eternal and predestined path of secularist ‘progress.’ This chapter seeks to complicate that assumption, by contrasting the last few centuries of increasing secularity with the previous millennia of scientific and religious syncretism, by showcasing scholarship which demonstrates that scientists need not be secular and, lastly, by taking a critical look at the disciplinary antecedents of STS. If neither the science, the scientists, nor the society are inherently nor even necessarily secular, why does STS treat them as if they are? And what knowledge could we recover from questioning that assumed secularity?