Hidden in Plain Sight: Science and Religion in the Work of Bruno Latour

The work of Bruno Latour can be variously filed in diverse places: from sociology and anthropology, through philosophy, to ecology. Relatively little of Latour’s work is usually tagged under science and religion. This is unfortunate because, although it does not fit the template we have come to expect for science-and-religion literature, the strong parallels which Latour saw between science and religion consistently provided the framework for his apparently disparate interests. This chapter argues that Latour’s work thus offers an unconventional but rich template for fruitfully interrelating science and religion. His approach accords well with the usual methods of Science and Technology Studies (STS). This is not coincidental: it was Latour’s thinking on science and religion which undergirded and inspired much of his seminal work on STS.