Faith, Science, and Understanding

by John Polkinghorne

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2000

Overview

In Faith, Science, and Understanding, one of the most highly regarded scientist-theologians of our time explores the interaction of science and theology. John Polkinghorne discusses the role of revelation in religion as a legitimate record of experience and not the communication of unchallengeable propositions. He discusses how to reconcile theology’s belief in a God who is active in creation with what science says about the processes of the universe. The author examines two related concepts in depth: the divine self-limitation in creation, which leads to an important reappraisal, and the nature of time and God’s involvement with it, an issue that Polkinghorne shows can closely link recent developments in science and theology. In the final section of the book, the author provides a brief overview of the science and theology debate and assesses the work of major contemporary contributors to the discussion: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Thomas Torrance, and Paul Davies.

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Key Features

• Explores the interaction of science and theology
• Examines the relationship between an active God and what science says about the processes of the universe
• Discusses the contemporary contributors to the discussion

Contents

• Issues
  • Theology in University
  • Motivations for Belief
  • The Role of Revelation
  • Design in Biology?
  • Second Thoughts
• Divine Agency
  • God in Relation to Nature: Kenotic Creation and Divine Action
  • Natural Science, Temporality and Divine Action
• Significant Thinkers
  • Contemporaries

Top Highlights

“Science is never absolutely certain, nor is its method absolutely clear cut. Whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, scientists live in an intellectual world that is rightly called postmodern. The clear and certain ideas of the Cartesian modernist programme have proved to be unattainable, even in its paradigm discipline, natural science. But I believe that science can also help us to live in the postmodern age with integrity and intellectual hope.” (Page 33)

“Faith in God is not simply an intellectual strategy of metaphysical explanation; it is a commitment of life involving the person at all levels of being.” (Page 60)

“but also with the many sad cases in which physical recovery is earnestly desired but not forthcoming” (Page 60)

“ Because science is also driven by the nudge of nature” (Page 55)

Product Details

• Title: Faith, Science and Understanding
• Author: John Polkinghorne
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2000
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 224
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Religion and science; Faith
• Resource ID: LLS:KNOWLUNDERST
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T04:15:30Z

About John Polkinghorne

Rev Dr. John Polkinghorne (1930-2021) was a distinguished physicist who spent recent decades studying and writing about the relationship between science and faith. His physics career began at Cambridge where he studied under the legendary quantum pioneer P.A.M. Dirac and others, and he worked for 25 years in the field of theoretical elementary particle physics as a professor at Cambridge. He resigned his professorship in 1979 and became an Anglican priest, and since then has become a leading spokesman for the faith among serious scientists. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, and was appointed KBE (Knight Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1997.