SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY: ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY DEBATES AND TASKS FOR TODAY’S CHURCH AND WORLD

Abstract

A look into the past only reveals that the theologian's task is a neverending one. In the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas succeeded in making the Christian message relevant to the learned world of his day which had been so greatly influenced by Aristotelianism as interpreted by Jewish and Mohammedan scholars. But this is not the day of St. Thomas Aquinas; the modern mind is not prepared to cope with the modes of Greek thought he employed. But by the same token this is not the patristic period either. It is an oversimplification of the theologian's task to imagine that we can recapture the realism of that great period simply by exchanging Aristotelian categories for biblical categories. I submit that the problem goes far deeper. Since God alone knows the whole design of redemption down to its smallest detail, in every age, until time has run its course, scripture will be replete with senses and meanings that are clearly perceived or known only by God. Science is experimental, verifiable, and supported by evidence, whereas (the claim goes) theology begins in untestable, unfalsifiable, evidence-proof belief. This article aims to give some new perspectives on the current conversation between theology and science. My opinion is that these two areas of human research are interrelated, and their connection should be marked by dialogue and cooperation rather than controversy and misunderstanding. These two institutions will contribute less to the future integration of our shared culture and more to its fragmentation if such a debate does not take place.