Physics, Philosophy, and Theology: A Quest for Common Understanding

The contents of Physics, Philosophy, and Theology are wide-ranging but unified. The first part treats historical and contemporary relations in science and religion, biblical theology on creation, Newton’s thought and the roots of modern atheism, the search for a natural theology, and the possible ways in which science and theology confront one another. In the second section the ways of knowing peculiar to the various disciplines and the implications for philosophical realism are investigated. In the last section a very creative and imaginative approach is taken to some of the most prominent areas of contemporary physics and cosmology in exploring whether they are open to revealing to us something of the reality of God and the relationship of God to the Universe and to us as we search for meaning within that Universe.

Contributors include: John Paul II, Ian Barbour, Michael Buckley, S.J., W. Norris Clarke, S.J., Richard Clifford, S.J., Michael Heller, Ernan McMullin, Olaf Pedersen, Mary Hesse, Nicholas Lash, Janet Martin Soskice, C.J. Isham, John Leslie, Sallie McFague, Ted Peters, John Polkinghorne, Robert John Russell, William Stoeger, S.J., and Frank Tipler.

Table of Contents

Preface by George V. Coyne, S.J.

Message from His Holiness Pope John Paul II

List of Participants

Historical and Contemporary Relations in Science and Religion

Ways of Relating Science and Theology, I.G. Barbour

Natural Science and Belief in a Creator: Historical Notes, E. McMullin

The Newtonian Settlement and the Origins of Atheism, M.J. Buckley, S.J.

Is a Natural Theology Still Possible Today?, W.N. Clarke, S.J.

Christian Belief and the Fascination of Science, O. Pedersen

Scientific Rationality and Christian Logos, M. Heller

Creation in the Hebrew Bible, R.J. Clifford, S.J.

Epistemology and Methodology

Knowledge and Experience in Science and Religion: Can We Be Realists?, J. Soskice

Physics, Philosophy, and Myth, M.B. Hesse

Observation, Revelation, and the Posterity of Noah, N. Lash

Contemporary Physics and Cosmology in Philosophical and Theological Perspective

Contemporary Cosmology and Its Implications for the Science-Religion Dialogue, W.R. Stoeger, S.J.

Models of God for an Ecological, Evolutionary Era: God as Mother of the Universe, S. McFague

On Creating the Cosmos, T. Peters

How to Draw Conclusions from a Fine-Tuned Universe, J. Leslie

The Omega Point Theory: A Model of an Evolving God, F.J. Tipler

The Quantum World, J. Polkinghorne

Quantum Physics in Philosophical and Theological Perspective, R.J. Russell

Creation of the Universe as a Quant, [C6] C.J. Isham