Theological Appropriation of Scientific Understandings: Response to Hefner, Wicken, Eaves, and Tipler

Abstract. Philip Hefner's focus on contingency and field as the guiding concepts in my thinking and his characterization of my theological enterprise as a Lakatosian research program are appropriate and helpful. I welcome Jeffrey Wicken's holistic approach to the emergence of life. Theolog...

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1. VerfasserIn: Pannenberg, Wolfhart 1928-2014 (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Wiley-Blackwell 1989
In: Zygon
Jahr: 1989, Band: 24, Heft: 2, Seiten: 255-271
weitere Schlagwörter:B Thermodynamics
B contingency and field
B Lakatosian research program
B double helix
B eschatology and the Omega Point
B self-organizing systems
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Zusammenfassung:Abstract. Philip Hefner's focus on contingency and field as the guiding concepts in my thinking and his characterization of my theological enterprise as a Lakatosian research program are appropriate and helpful. I welcome Jeffrey Wicken's holistic approach to the emergence of life. Theology can appropriate the language of self-organizing systems exploiting the thermodynamic flow of energy degradation for interpreting organic life as a creation of the Spirit of God. However, I cannot sympathize with Lindon Eaves's equation of “hard science” with a reductionism which raises the double helix to the status of icon; the “meaning” of DNA derives from its place in the total phenomenon of life—not the reverse. Frank Tipler's cosmology raises the prospect of a rapprochement between physics and theology in the area of eschatology. A Christian cosmology, however, would require at least three modifications: contingency in the history of creation; the uniqueness of Jesus' resurrection; and the relation of these to the problem of evil.
ISSN:1467-9744
Enthält:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1989.tb01113.x