Andrew Root’s book, “Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies: Youth Ministry in the Age of Science,” deserves a spot on your summer reading list. Root, Luther Seminary professor and the Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry, tackles the age-old debate of science versus religion and shows how the two can mutually inform one another.
The book is written from the perspective of a fictional youth pastor who works with teens struggling to reconcile their faith with science. Root’s argument is that faith can flourish in a scientific age. “If we can find a way to explore the intersection of faith and science with young people, we can show them a living God who acts in the world,” Root says.
Sarah Lane Ritchie of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland says, “Consider this book the youth ministry book on science and theology. ‘Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies’ is a gamechanger, deserving a place on the bookshelves of not only all youth ministers but anyone seeking an intellectually honest and spiritually sensitive engagement with science and theology.”