The Order of Things: Explorations in Scientific Theology

The Order of Things......Page 1
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 10
Taking the Enlightenment Seriously......Page 11
Renewing the Quest for Reliable Knowledge......Page 14
On Developing a Scientific Theology......Page 16
Introducing the Essays......Page 23
A review article by Dr. Benjamin Myers, University of Queensland......Page 33
2 Is a ‘‘Scientific Theology’’ Intellectual Nonsense? Engaging with Richard Dawkins......Page 53
The Universal Scope of the Natural Sciences......Page 57
Darwinism and the Impossibility of Theology......Page 58
Faith and Evidence in Science and Theology......Page 63
Theology as a Virus of the Mind?......Page 73
Does Theology Impoverish Our View of the Universe?......Page 81
3 A University Sermon: On Natural Theology......Page 86
4 Towards the Restatement and Renewal of a Natural Theology: A Dialogue with the Classic English Tradition......Page 95
Natural Theology: An Autobiographical Reflection......Page 97
Natural Theology as Discernment......Page 100
The Golden Age of English Natural Theology......Page 103
The Boyle Lectures and the Problem of Heterodoxy......Page 105
William Paley and the Divine Watchmaker......Page 108
The Challenge of Darwinism for Natural Theology......Page 110
Incarnation, Trinity, and Natural Theology......Page 115
Responding to Barth: Natural Theology as a Specifically Christian Undertaking......Page 119
Tradition, Interpretation, and the Discovery of God: Natural Theology and Meno’s Paradox......Page 120
Cognitive and Perceptual Approaches to Natural Theology......Page 124
5 Stratification: Levels of Reality and the Limits of Reductionism......Page 129
Stratification in Nicolai Hartmann......Page 130
Stratification in Roy Bhaskar......Page 132
Stratification, Emergence, and the Failure of Reductionism......Page 133
Mathesis Universalis: Heinrich Scholz and the Flawed Quest for Methodological Uniformity......Page 140
6 The Evolution of Doctrine? A Critical Examination of the Theological Validity of Biological Models of Doctrinal Development......Page 149
Nature as a Source of Theological Models......Page 151
The Notion of Doctrinal Development......Page 153
‘‘Universal Darwinism’’ and the Development of Culture......Page 159
Are Human Ideas and Values Outside the Darwinian Paradigm?......Page 163
Darwinism, Lamarckianism, or What? The Indeterminate Mechanism of Cultural Evolution......Page 166
Cultural Evolution: A Historical Case Study......Page 168
Directing Evolution: Antonio Gramsci and the Manipulation of Cultural Development......Page 171
The Memetic Approach to Intellectual Evolution......Page 174
Doctrinal Development: Are There Islands of Theological Stability?......Page 185
Contingency, History, and Adaptation in the Evolutionary Process......Page 187
Contingency, History, and Adaptation in the Development of Doctrine......Page 193
Chalcedon, Metaphysics, and Spandrels: Evolutionary Perspectives on the Chalcedonian Definition of Faith......Page 197
7 Assimilation in the Development of Doctrine: The Theological Significance of Jean Piaget......Page 201
Piaget on ‘‘Reflective Abstraction’’......Page 203
Assimilation to Jewish Religious Norms: Ebionitism......Page 206
Assimilation to Roman Cultural Norms: Pelagianism......Page 208
Assimilation to Anglo-Saxon Cultural Norms: Christ as Hero......Page 211
The Achievement of Equilibration: Factors Encouraging Theological Accommodation......Page 212
8 AWorking Paper: The Ordering of the World in a Scientific Theology......Page 215
9 AWorking Paper: Iterative Procedures and Closure in Systematic Theology......Page 226
10 The Church as the Starting Point for a Scientific Dogmatics......Page 236
Starting from the Visible Reality of the Church......Page 237
Can Theology be Empirical? John Locke versus John Dewey......Page 239
The Church as an Empirical Social Reality......Page 248
Stanley Hauerwas on Seeing the Church......Page 255
Transignification and Transvaluation: The Church and New Ways of Seeing Things......Page 257
Conclusion......Page 261
Bibliography......Page 262
Index......Page 284