God and the Scientist: Exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne

299 Pages·2012·1.76 MB·English

by  Fraser Watts & Christopher C. Knight & Fraser

God and the Scientist
Exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne
Edited by
Fraser Watts and Christopher C. Knight
God and the ScientiSt
ashgate Science and Religion Series
Series Editors:
Roger trigg, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick, and Academic Director
of the Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Kellogg College, Oxford
J. Wentzel van huyssteen, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA
Science and religion have often been thought to be at loggerheads but much
contemporary work in this flourishing interdisciplinary field suggests this is far
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in science and religion, exploring the philosophical relations between the
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contemporary issues in philosophy and theology are debated, as are prevailing
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Other titles in the series:
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Jeanine thweatt-Bates
978-1-4094-2141-2 (hbk)
The Cognitive Science of Religion
James a. Van Slyke
978-1-4094-2123-8 (hbk)
Science and Faith within Reason
Reality, Creation, Life and Design
edited by Jaume navarro
978-1-4094-2608-0 (hbk)
God and the Scientist
exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne
Edited by
FRaSeR WattS
University of Cambridge, UK
chRiStoPheR c. KniGht
International Society for Science and Religion, UK
© Fraser Watts and christopher c. Knight 2012
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Fraser Watts and christopher c. Knight have asserted their right under the copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
God and the scientist : exploring the work of John
Polkinghorne. -- (ashgate science and religion series)
1. Polkinghorne, J. c., 1930- 2. Religion and science.
3. Providence and government of God--christianity.
i. Series ii. Watts, Fraser n. iii. Knight, christopher c.,
1952-
215-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
God and the scientist : exploring the work of John Polkinghorne / edited by Fraser Watts
and christopher c. Knight.
p. cm. -- (ashgate science and religion series)
includes index.
iSBn 978-1-4094-4569-2 (hardcover) -- iSBn 978-1-4094-4571-5 (ebook) 1. Religion
and science. 2. Polkinghorne, J. c., 1930- i. Watts, Fraser n. ii. Knight, christopher c.,
1952-
BL240.3.G59 2012
261.5'5--dc23
iSBn 9781409445692 (hbk)
iSBn 9781409445708 (pbk)
iSBn 9781409445715 (ebk)
III
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the
MPG Books Group, UK.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface xiii
1 Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker 1
John Polkinghorne
2 John Polkinghorne on Three Scientist–Theologians 13
Ian G. Barbour
3 Is Informational Causality Primary Causality?
A Study of an Aspect of John Polkinghorne’s
Account of Divine Action 33
Terry J. Wright
4 Polkinghorne on Mathematics and Chaos Theory 51
Nicholas Saunders
5 Queen Physics:
How Much of the Globe is Painted Red? 67
Nancy Cartwright and Eric Martin
6 God and Time: A New Flowing Time Interpretation of
Special Relativity and its Importance for Theology 77
Robert John Russell
7 Cosmic If-statements 93
Daniel W. Darg
8 Bishop Berkeley’s Castle:
John Polkinghorne on the Soul 127
Keith Ward
9 Theology and Scientific Cosmology 139
Fraser Watts
vi God and the Scientist
10 Christian Hope in Dialogue with Natural Science:
John Polkinghorne’s Incorporation of Bottom-up
Thinking into Eschatology 153
Junghyung Kim
11 Subtle and Supple:
John Polkinghorne’s Engagement with Reality 175
Pat Bennett
12 On Revising Natural Theology:
John Polkinghorne and the False Modesty
of Liberal Theology 197
Russell Re Manning
13 John Polkinghorne’s Kenotic Theology of Creation and
its Implications for a Theory of Human Creativity 217
James M. Watkins
14 Science-and-Theology from the Standpoint of Divine Kenosis 243
Philip Clayton
15 Processes of Discovery in Science and Theology:
Bottom-up Approach, Critical Realism and
Interdisciplinary Inspiration 257
Michael Welker
16 Some Responses 267
John Polkinghorne
A Selected Bibliography of Works on
the Science–Theology Dialogue 275
Index 281
List of Figures
6.1 Time as a one-dimensional continuous variable 78
6.2 The present event B with a future event C and
a past event A relative to B 78
6.3 The paradox of flowing time:
Which temporal ontology for event B is correct? 79
6.4 Tensed relations to event B as present 81
6.5 The temporal relations for three events considered
successively as present 81
6.6 “Flowing time” as the axis connecting multiple present events
in times t, t and t 82
1 2 3
6.7 How can T and S both be real if T is in the causal future of S? 84
6.8 A generalized spacetime diagram that incorporates
the previously distinct sequences of worldviews
from the perspectives of the barn and the pole 87
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Notes on Contributors
Ian G. Barbour taught for many years at Carleton College in Minnesota, and his
book Issues in Science and Religion, published in 1966, became a fundamental
textbook for students of the science–theology dialogue. Other books followed,
including two based on the Gifford Lectures that he gave in Aberdeen in 1989
and 1990. He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in
1999 in recognition of his efforts to encourage the dialogue between scientists,
philosophers and theologians.
Pat Bennett is a mature post-graduate student at Oxford Brookes University,
where she is in the final stages of a PhD integrating theological insights with
empirical data from cognitive neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology. She is
a member of the Iona Community.
Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics
and at the University of California at San Diego, specializing in the philosophy of
the natural and social sciences. In the first half of her career at Stanford University
she focussed on philosophy of physics but since moving to LSE and UCSD she
has concentrated on the social and economic sciences. She has written extensively
about the laws of nature, scientific modelling and causation.
Philip Clayton, author of a number of influential books on the science–theology
dialogue, is Dean of Claremont School of Theology and Provost of Claremont
Lincoln University. He has taught at Williams College and the California State
University, as well as holding guest professorships at the University of Munich, the
University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He specializes in constructive
theology, the religion–science debate, comparative theologies and the philosophy
of religion.
Daniel W. Darg recently completed his DPhil degree in astrophysics at Oxford
University, where he continues to work at a postdoctoral level on astrophysics
and philosophical topics related to Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle. He
previously studied physics at Imperial College London and Theology and Jewish
Studies at Oxford.
Junghyung Kim is currently an associate pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the
Lord, Seoul. Recently he completed his PhD degree at the Graduate Theological