Theological and Natural Science

Rating:
Summary: The Omega Point of Theological and Natural Science
Review: All sciences are, in a true sense, anthropology, except for Theology...Theology alone exists because there is a word of God to humanity." Karl Rahner, Hearer of the Word

Thomas Torrance:
Second to theology, science is his great intellectual interest. In the past three decades Torrance has written over ten books on the interrelations between science and theology. He has been one of the pioneers in the new and burgeoning discipline of Science and Religion; and in 1978 the Duke of Edinburgh awarded him the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, given to "those who through original and pioneering ways advanced the knowledge and love of God." Yet, throughout Torrance's more scientific writings, theological passion remains his primary driving force. " (Dictionary of Modern Western Theology


Torrance Theological Science:
T.T. starts his case of unity of reality, the harmony of science and theology, by a tour in Einstein's mind, a model center of perception of Divine Wisdom. His exposition understandably includes a curved space universe, a new mathesis, but also touching on his encounter with Freud's "Moses and monotheism, and his conversation with M. Buber, about his own faith. In 'Michael Polanyi and the Christian faith', their personal rapport is so touching that for a time his multi talented and genuine preaching Christianity has withdrawn me into their session.
In nine enlightening essays, on the interrelation between Christian theology and natural science, that linked the genius thought of James C. Maxwell to his predecessor of late antiquity, John Philoponus, who caused the scientific tension to erupt a millennia later into revolution as per Kuhn's terminology, Prof. Torrance masterfully gives us the most compelling 'double edged knowledge' that leaves you in awe. His engaging preface, on the subject lectures, is so wondrous that you wonder if he is a mystic story teller praising the toil lover, the Alexandrine sophi-Scientist.

Rise of Modern Science:
"Modern science devoted to the investigation of empirical phenomena could not have risen in the classical form given to it by Galileo and Newton if it had been restricted to a purely a priori approach," argues Prof. Thomas Torrance in his book; 'Theological and Natural Science.' He postulates that; "It arose out of the way of the understanding of the universe as created by God and endowed by him with a created or contingent rationality of its own, dependent upon his transcendent rationality. This means that while the contingence of the universe cannot be demonstrated from the world itself, nevertheless scientific understanding of it is reached only through giving attention to the universe itself, apart from God."
He makes a very interesting observation, or in his words; the problem as he sees it ; "that coupling and decoupling of the contingent universe with God lies deep in the foundation of our western science, but the decoupling loses its significance when its relation to the coupling of God and science is neglected or severed, as happened in the enlightenment."

Modern Science & Theology:
Because there is a correlation between patterns intrinsic to the scientist's mind and intelligible patterns embodied in the physical world, science is possible at all, Torrance says. "Just because scientists themselves and the realm of nature have been created alike through the logos or word, the intelligibility inherent in nature and the intelligibility inherent in the structures of human knowing match up. Therefore the realm of nature that science investigates was made through the logos. Then the inner principle of God's mind and being, the rationality of God himself, has been imprinted indelibly on the creation. In short, thanks to creation through the word, there is engraved upon all of nature a rationality, an intelligibility, that reflects the rationality of the Creator's own mind.
"Launching of T. Torrance TheoLogos move that broke 'officially' in Edinburgh at its fourth centennial inauguration of the great Northern Scottish thought Castle, where J. Clerk Maxwell's mathemagical genius in his epoch making work on the electromagnetic field was published has started a huge centennial wave of authentic reality that swept the anathemas off the 'toil lover' John, setting his rational soul free," comments Didaskalex.


Theology & Natural Science:
The relationship of the Christian traditions to science from the 'common' era to the late twentieth century, have got their bumps, their intersection suggests a complex interaction rather than inalterable conflict. Tracing the rise of modern science from the renascence through the scientific revolution major shifts, were marked by discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, etc., and the Catholic church reactions to 'Human sciences' was so negative that the dissecting table in the pioneering anatomy theater in the University of Padova was designed to instantly conceal the corpus, by lifting of a small handle.
Isaac Newton started a chain reaction of changes in scientific understanding, brought about further by 18th/19th century discoveries in biology, chemistry, physics, archaeology, and cosmology. The theological implications of advancing science and contemporary thought on environmentalism, deconstruction, gender studies, and postmodernism, are at the center of current social debates. History, meaning, and implication of science and the technological revolution of the Cyberspace information age, are causing unprecedented theological thought reassessment, since the 'shaking of the foundation' in Vatican II.


The Omega Point:
Jaroslav Pelikan, in his 'most engaging and enlightening religious compendium of our time' has selected a Jesuit Paleontologist classic: 'The phenomenon of man,' to give a prophetic vision of the distant future, where human spiritual evolution would attain its divinely destined goal. "After allowing itself to be captivated in excess by the charms of the analysis to the extent of falling into illusion, modern thought is at last getting used once more to the idea of the creative value of synthesis in evolution. It is beginning to see that there is definitely more in the molecule than in the atom, more in the cell than in the molecule, more in society than in the individual, and more in mathematical construction than in calculations and theorems. .. But science is nevertheless still far from recognizing that this something has a particular value of independence and solidity." Pierre Teilhard De Chardin.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Be prepared to enter into a deeper and more meaningful understanding and relationship with God. Professor Torence lends great insight into the deep things of God. His insight into the nature of scientific activity and the nature of truth are highly commendable. Though it will take some time to ponder the wealth of information found in this book it's well worth it to the patient and willing.

Rating:
Summary: Scientific Theology from John Philoponus to J. Clerk Maxwell
Review: Compatibility of Science and Theology:
An anonymous saying was iterated secretively since the time of Dr. W. Inge, popularly known as the Gloomy Dean, that read:
'A graduate student at Trinity..Computed the square of infinity.
But it gave him the fidgets.. To put down the digits,
So he dropped math and took up divinity.' (Anon.)
That was not the tradition in Late Antiquity Alexandria, the City of Mathematics, were a heroic figure, John Philoponus, a sixth century scietheologian astonishingly anticipated Clerk Maxwellian break through in science, while steadfastly defending the genuine Orthodox Christology of Athanasius, Cyril, and his own colleague Severus of Antioch.

Cambridge philosophic Scientists:
In the early 1930s, a group of Cambridge scientists, led by Sir Arthur Eddington, exploring the depth of 20th century physics, came to a conclusive world view that the staff of the Cosmos is a mathematical 'mind-stuff.' One of them, Sir James Jeans argued that, "If the universe is a universe of thought, then its creation must be an act of thought." Dr. David Forster suggests that the void is God's mental space, supported by Einstein's matter-tensor, giving mathematics a mass-energy substance of: 'The shaping of the void.'
Eddington, Jeans and Whitehead came to the same conclusions on the 'Mathematical Cosmic Mind,' through different approaches of thought. My own unqualified assumption, that the launchiong of T.Torrance TheoLogos move that broke 'officially' in Edinburgh at its fourth centennial inaugration of the great Northern Scottish thought Castle, where J. Clerk Maxwell's mathemagical genius in his epoch making work on the electromagnetic field was published has started a huge centennial wave of authentic reality that swept the anathemas off the 'toil lover' John, setting his rational soul free.

Torrance Theological Science:
In nine lucent addresses on the interrelation between Christian theology and natural science, that linked the genius thought of J. Clerk Maxwell and a remarkable anticipation of his medieval predessesor who caused the scientific tension to erupt a millenia later into revolution as per Kuhn's terminology, Prof. Torrance masterfully gives us the most compelling 'double edged knowledge' that leaves you in awe. His engaging preface, on the subject lectures, is so personal that I thought he was telling me his story, meeting with my heroic toil lover, the Alexandrine sophi-Scientogist.
T.T. introduced me anew to many thinkers I thought I really knew!
His theological pilgrimage interfacing Cyril's Orthodox Christology is a remedy for the Orientals' abuse by Aristotelian Byzantines, and a patristic encounter with St. Basil's "De Opificio Mundi' through the Neoplatonist's commentary.

Einstein & God:
T.T. starts his case of unity of reality, science and theology, by a tour in Albert's noia, the center of perception of Divine Wisdom. His exposition understandably includes a curved space universe, a new mathesis but also Spinoza and Freud. Einstein later claim that "Only an Ox eats stritly kosher", is a statement that insinuates he read "Moses and monotheism, but sure he conversed with M. Buber, about his faith. In chapter eight;Michael Polanyi and the Christian faith, his personal report is so touching that I felt for the first time his multi talented and genuinely personal Christianity. T.T. was born to missionary parents, served as moderator of the assembly of the Church of Scotland, and converted John Emory McKenna from a Princeton physicist to a Philoponoi Christologist, John's theognostic language moved from Hebrew to Syriac, a big price for a unique encounter of Christ's Wisdom in the Grammarian.

Thanks JEM for advising me to review this theognostically metanoic, an inner thought changing insight for the Theo-minded.