The Sense of the Universe: Philosophical Explication of Theological Commitment in Modern Cosmology
Overview
The Sense of the Universe deals with existential and phenomenological reflection upon modern cosmology, revealing hidden theological commitments in cosmology related to the mystery of human existence. Alexei Nesteruk sets forth a new approach to the dialogue between science and theology, based on philosophical analysis of the subjectivity involved in the study of the world and in religious experience. Nesteruk uses recent advances in phenomenological philosophy and philosophical theology in order to accentuate the existential meaning of cosmology as the discourse that ultimately explicates the human condition.
The objective of the book is not to compare the cosmological scientific narrative and biblical narrative, but to reveal the presence of a hidden theological dimension in cosmology, originating in the God-given ability of humanity to discern and disclose the sense of creation. The book contributes to the synthesis of appropriation and incorporation of modern philosophical ideas in Christian theology, in particular its Eastern Orthodox form.
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Looking for more from Alexei Nesteruk? See The Universe as Communion: Towards a Neo-Patristic Synthesis of Theology and Science.
- Examines hidden theological commitments in cosmology related to the mystery of human existence
- Extends the dialogue between science and theology formulated in Nesteruk’s previous book, Light from the East
- Includes indexes, glossary, and bibliography
- Introduction: Thinking of the Universe and Theological Commitment
- The Universe and Humanity
- Cosmology and Existential Phenomenology
- Constituting the Universe
- The Universe as a Construct
- The Origin of the Universe and Event of Birth
- Cosmology and Teleology
- The Universe as a Saturated Phenomenon
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Indexes
Top Highlights
“Thus the constitution of the universe naturally requires the extension of the cosmological quest to the intelligible realm, thus extending the very body of physical cosmology beyond the physical as such. The physical itself becomes a matter of constitution appealing to some general rules of the understanding and reason, that is, to the principle of rationality.” (Page 253)
“Indeed, since all consciousness is intentional, the primary object of this intention in cosmology is the universe in which this consciousness embodies. Consciousness gazes at the universe as that premise which sustains the very possibility of consciousness.” (Page 307)
“As result, a body-like image of the universe, as a certain substance contained by this receptacle, emerges. It is only in the vision of the universe as extended that it comes to mind that humanity occupies one particular place in it and that the meaning of this place was articulated differently during the history of astronomy and cosmology. However, the awareness of our position in the universe forms a transcendental condition of knowing the universe in the natural attitude: the universe must be extended in space and time in order to be explicable.” (Page 249)
“A phenomenological insight into the sense of cosmology as explicating humanity’s quest for itself thus compensates the incompleteness of cosmology and reinstates its human creator to its ontological centeredness in disclosing and manifesting the universe.46 At the same time, the limits of physics and scientific philosophy tested through cosmology in fact test the limits of humanity to understand its own sense of existence.” (Page 112)
Nesteruk demonstrates astonishing learning in science, philosophy, and theology in this new approach to an old subject. . . . Using the tools of phenomenology and existentialism, he uncovers what is too often hidden: the open, questing being that is human, created in God’s image. I recommend this outstanding study to anyone who seeks to think deeply in new ways about faith and the meaning of our scientific quest.
—Alan G. Padgett, professor of systematic theology, Luther Seminary
The publication of Alexei Nesteruk’s The Sense of the Universe is an exciting event. It has all the brilliance of his first two books on cosmology and theology, but it is much more accessible to the general reader. He also adds to his solid grasp of ‘classic’ phenomenological philosophy, with further research into the work of more recent French thinkers such as Marion, Chrétien, and M. Henry. Those unfamiliar with Eastern Orthodox philosophy and theology will find here a stimulating and perhaps dazzling introduction to a mode of thinking that has always taken its bearings from lived experience, giving it not only an affinity with contemporary phenomenology but also (under the tutelage of a master physicist and mathematician such as Nesteruk) an impressive ability to illumine sacred elements within the very heart of scientific experience itself.
—Bruce Foltz, professor of philosophy, Eckerd College
Nesteruk’s central tenet is that a phenomenological analysis of the foundations of physics reveals that in doing physics we also reveal the nature of our humanity. . . . Nesteruk interprets ideas concerning the universe as a whole, and its origin, existentially as reflecting the basic anxieties of human existence in the vast cosmos. In this view, the study of cosmological is interpreted as an inevitable part of the teleology pertaining to all human acts. The universe as a whole, which is the inexhaustible context of the living experience, is then seen as ‘the infinite created unknowable’ which, from an epistemological point of view, is similar to that of the Divine. Nesteruk unfolds, through the analysis of ideas of the universe, a hidden theological commitment in cosmology related to the metaphysical and theological mystery of the human existence.
—Chris Dewdney, University of Portsmouth
- Title: The Sense of the Universe: Philosophical Explication of Theological Commitment in Modern Cosmology
- Author: Alexei V. Nesteruk
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Pages: 336
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Theology; Cosmology
- ISBNs: 9781451470383, 9781451494174, 145147038X, 1451494173
- Resource ID: LLS:SENSEUNIVERSE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:56:29Z