Textbooks, popular lectures and sermons: the quantum chemist Charles Alfred Coulson and the crafting of scienceThis paper is a revised version of a talk delivered at the workshop ‘Training scientists, crafting science’, organized by David Kaiser, at MIT, on 24–6 January and 19–21 September 2002. I thank all participants for their criticisms, but especially David Kaiser, Mary Jo Nye and Bob Kohler for written comments which led me to sharpen my original idea of presenting Coulsonʼs thoughts on science and religion as an important aspect of his pedagogical efforts. I also thank Ana Carneiro and Olga Pombo for comments on an earlier draft of this paper; Manolis Patiniotis for his clarification of several points concerning natural theology and his support of my first incursion on the history of science and religion; J. H. Brooke for a very enlightening discussion on a summery afternoon in late April 2002, in Oxford, about problems and pitfalls in writing about science and religion issues; Kostas Gavroglu for always being there and for his willingness to use the last days of his summer vacations to read and comment on such a long paper; and Crosbie Smith and the two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions to improve the manuscript. Finally, I extend my thanks to Ursula Klein for her invitation to visit the Max-Planck Institut für Wissenschaftgeschichte, in July 2003, where I found the necessary peace of mind to bring this paper almost to its final form, and to Susan McMahon, a member of her group, for profitable lunchtime discussions.

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