BARROW AND TIPLER'S ANTHROPIC COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

Abstract. John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler's recently published Anthropic Cosmological Principle is an encyclopedic defense of melioristic evolutionary cosmology. They review the history of the idea from ancient times to the present, and defend both a "weak" version, and two "strong" versions of the anthropic principle. I argue the weak version of the anthropic principle is true and important, but that neither of the two strong versions are well grounded in fact. Their "final" anthropic principle is a revision of Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary cosmology. They rectify Teilhard's factual errors but commit even more serious psychological and religious errors of their own.     

THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE: WHERE ARE WE?

Abstract. Revolutionary developments in both science and theology are moving the relation between the two far beyond the nineteenth-century “warfare” model. Both scientists and theologians are engaged in a common search for shared understanding. Eight models of interaction are outlined: scientism, scientific imperialism, ecclesiastical authoritarianism, scientific creationism, the two-language theory, hypothetical consonance, ethical overlap, and New Age spirituality. Developments in hypothetical consonance are explored in the work of various scholars, including Ian Barbour, Philip Clayton, Paul Davies, Willem Drees, Langdon Gilkey, Philip Hefner, Nancey Murphy, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne, Robert John Russell, Thomas Torrence and Wenzel van Huyssteen.     

RESPONSE TO CRITIQUES OF RELIGION IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE

Abstract. In replying to the four thoughtful critiques of my first Gifford volume I try to clarify the differences among us. I defend my use of Kuhn's concept of paradigms against Nancey Murphy's use of Lakatos's concept of research programs and then compare both of us with advocates of the “strong program” in the social construction of science. Sallie McFague identifies me with the empiricist, objectivist, “modernist” tradition and contrasts it to her own “postmodernist” acceptance of cultural relativism and the social construction of science, but I argue that I am seeking an intermediate position that redefines objectivity rather than rejecting it. Some themes common to feminist and process theology are also examin ed. In dialogue with Bob Russell I discuss the metaphysical and theological implications of the unity of space and time in relativity, the beginning of time in recent cosmology, and the thesis that God acts by determining events in indeterminate quantum systems. Finally I compare John Cobb's indebtedness to Whitehead with my own and suggest that I am more willing to adapt or modify process thought in the interpretation of scientific theories and religious experience.     

FROM PESSIMISM TO HOPE: A NATURAL PROGRESSION

Mutual critique by scientists and religious believers mostly entails the pruning of untenable religious beliefs by scientists and warnings against scientific minimalism on the part of believers. John F. Haught has been prominent in formulating religious apologetics in response to the challenges posed by evolutionary theory. Haught's work also resonates with a parallel criticism of the conventional scientific metaphysics undergirding neo‐Darwinian theory. Contemporary systems ecology seems to indicate that nothing short of a complete reversal of the Enlightenment assumptions about nature is capable of repositioning science to deal adequately with the origin and dynamics of living systems. A process‐based alternative metaphysics substantially mitigates several ostensible conflicts between science and religion.     

Comment by John R. Bowlin

Comments on:
Charles T. Mathewes, Agency, Nature, Transcendence, and Moralism: A Review of Recent Work in Moral Psychology     

Negotiating Reintegration and Meanings of Space: Formerly Abducted Youth in Uganda

The war in Northern Uganda has ended, and youth who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army continue to return to communities. Research conducted in the summer of 2010 in two locations in Uganda, Gulu and Masindi, shows that the process of reintegration is an ongoing process in which formerly abducted youth (FAY) negotiate social relations for reintegration in a very interactive way. FAY consciously decide to stay quiet about their past to avoid compromising social reintegration. The experience‐oriented approach has allowed for an in‐depth exploration and understanding of the reintegration process from the perspective of FAY. In Northern Ugandan cosmology, meaning given to FAY personal spaces dominates. With FAY facing social exclusion by community members and the need to overcome boundaries to reintegration, coping mechanisms are adopted to facilitate reintegration and to carve out personal space within the Northern Ugandan cosmology. In the exploration of the process of negotiating reintegration, a conceptual model is adopted and adjusted to represent personal space within Northern Ugandan cosmology. The main findings suggest that FAY negotiate social relations for reintegration in a very interactive way and that they consciously decide to stay quiet about their past so as to not compromise social reintegration. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Remembering the Christian Past by Robert L. Wilken
Exbodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis by L. Gregory Jones
Boundaries of Our Habitations: Tradition and Theological Construction by Delwin Brown
Theological Essays II by Eberhard Jüngel, ed. John Webster, trans. Arnold Neufeldt-Fast and John Webster (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994); and, The Possibilities of Theology: Studies in the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel in his Sixtieth Year , ed. John Webster     

A GOD THAT COULD BE REAL IN THE NEW SCIENTIFIC UNIVERSE

We are living at the dawn of the first truly scientific picture of the universe‐as‐a‐whole, yet people are still dragging along prescientific ideas about God that cannot be true and are even meaningless (e.g., omniscience) in the universe we now know we live in. This makes it impossible to have a coherent big picture of the modern world that includes God. But we don't have to accept an impossible God or else no God. We can have a real God if we redefine God in light of knowledge no one ever had before. The key question is, “Could anything actually exist in the scientific universe that is worthy of the name, God?” My answer is yes: God is an “emergent phenomenon,” as real as the global economy or the government or the worldwide web, which are all emergent phenomena. But God arose from something deeper: the complex interactions of all humanity's aspirations. An emerging God has enormous implications.     

Cornell College: Program in Science and Religion

Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, has established a new interdisciplinary program in science and religion. One of the features of this program is an undergraduate major in science and religion that requires substantial course work in at least one of the natural sciences as well as course work in philosophy, religion, and history. As a result of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Cornell College will offer a special course, God and Physics: From Aquinas to Quantum Mechanics (April 1998), and will sponsor an international symposium on creation and contemporary cosmology (April 1999). Opportunities exist for interested scholars to come to Cornell as Templeton Visiting Fellows in order to participate in these activities.     

Review Essay

Belief in God in an Age of Science , by John Polkinghorne
Genes, Genesis and God: Values and their Origins in Natural and Human History , by Holmes Rolston, III
The Genetic Gods: Evolution and Belief in Human Affairs , by John C. Avise     

读玄释中——试论《太玄》所本的宇宙说

本文认为《太玄》不仅拟卦气说之易,亦拟《易传》所传之易,由准《文言》之《玄文》,认定《中》首在《太玄》中。地位最为重要。《中》首兼具水、土二行。是扬雄的有意安排,这是由其所本的宇宙思想决定的。本文认为《太玄》浑盖兼采。在对几种盖天说与浑天说分析的基础上．认为只有一种盖天说及一种浑天说为《太玄)所本。以此为基础,对《中》首为何兼准二行做了解释。     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
A Global Ethic The Declaration of the Parliament of the World's Religions, Hans Küng and Karl-Josef Kuschel (eds)
Evangelization and Culture, Aylward Shorter, Geoffrey Chapman
Revelation: Vision of a Just World, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, T. & T. Clark
The Convert Cardinals: John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning, David Newsome, John Murray
The Model of Love: A Study in Philosophical Theology, Vincent Brümmer
Saint Paul at the Movies: The Apostle's Dialogue with American Culture, Robert Jewett, Westminister/John Knox
A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering, Emilie M. Townes (ed.)
Critical Caring: A Feminist Model for Pastoral Psychology, Valerie M. DeMarinis, Westminster/John Knox
Life Cycles: Women and Pastoral Care, Elaine Graham and Margaret Halsey (eds)
Religions in the UK: A Multi-Faith Directory, Paul Weller (ed), researched by Rachelle Castle and Paul Weller
Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement 1950–1970, James F. Findlav Jr.
Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin, B. A. Gerrish, T. & T. Clark
Worship, Adoration and Action, D.A. Carson (ed.)
Explorations in Science and Theology. The Templeton Lectures at the RSA,
Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology, William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith,
Science and Christian Belief: Theological Reflections on a Bottom-up Thinker, John Polkinghorne
Theology for a Scientific Age (enlarged edition), Arthur Peacocke
The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, Jon D. Levenson
Jung and the Monotheisms, Joel Ryce-Menuhin
SSM: History of the Society of the Sacred Mission, Alistair Mason
How to Understand the Virgin Mary, Jacques Bur     

CONTINGENCY IN PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY: A CRITIQUE OF THE THEOLOGY OF WOLFHART PANNENBERG

Abstract. The concept of contingency serves to bridge the doctrine of creation and natural science in Wolfhart Pannenberg's theology. My paper first analyzes the relation of creatio ex nihilo and creatio continua. Next I suggest three categories of contingency: global, local, and nomological. Under each category I assess Pannenberg's use of physics, cosmology, and philosophy of science. Although I agree with Pannenberg's emphasis on continuous creation and on the role of science in renewing the doctrine of creation, I argue for a shift in the discussion from Pannenberg's topics to others, such as the anthropic principle, quantum physics, and thermodynamics.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Stephen Sykes: The Identity of Christianity: Theologians and the Essence of Christianity from Schleiermacher to Barth.
Form and Vitality in the World and God: A Christian Perspective. By Trevor Williams
Marc H. Ellis, Toward A Jewish Theology of Liberation
Theology, Church and Ministry , by John Macquarrie
THE AUTHORITY OF A BISHOP by John Halliburton     

Reviews

Review in this Article
RADICAL ORTHODOXY: A NEW THEOLOGY, edited by John Mllbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward
THE WAY OF THE LAMB: THE SPIRIT OF CHILDHOOD AND THE END OF THE AGE by John Saward
GENTILE TALES: THE NARRATIVE ASSAULT ON LATE MEDIEVAL JEWS by Miri Rubin
LOURDES: BODY AND SPIRIT IN THE SECULAR AGE by Ruth Harris     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Biblical Interpretation, by Robert Morgan with John Barton
Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard: Religion, Individuality and Philosophical Method, by Charles Creegan
The Possibility of an All-knowing God, by Jonathan Kvanvig, Macmillan
The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Edited by John Hick and Paul F. Knitter     

Infinite Minds: A Philosophical Cosmology

Book Information Infinite Minds: A Philosophical Cosmology. Infinite Minds: A Philosophical Cosmology John Leslie Oxford Clarendon Press 2001 xii + 234 £25 By John Leslie. Clarendon Press. Oxford. Pp. xii + 234. £25,     

Who is a Religious Naturalist?

This article introduces Religious Naturalism, an inclusive collection of belief systems focused on one central commitment: current understandings of the natural world remain undistorted by religious believing. Religious naturalists seek to develop coherent and satisfying meta-versions of their interpretive, spiritual, and moral responses to the natural world.     

BOOK AND ARTICLE REVIEW SECTION

Book reviewed in this article: Crites, John O. “Measurement of Vocational Maturity in Adolescence: Attitude Test of the Vocational Development Inventory,” Psychological Monographs. McCall, John N. and Moore, Gilbert D., “Do Interest Inventories Measure Estimated Abilities,” The Personnel and Guidance Journal.     

Toward a New Understanding of Nature, Reality, and the Sacred: A Syllabus

Adjustments in the understanding of the relation of religion and science since the Enlightenment require new considerations in epistemology and metaphysics. Constructionist theories of knowledge and process theories of metaphysics better provide the new paradigms needed both to preserve and to limit the significance of each field of human understanding. In a course taught at Moravian College, this perspective is applied to the concepts of nature, reality, and the sacred, with a view to showing how we might develop one such paradigm. Key resources for this task are to be found in the work of artist René Magritte; theologians Langdon Gilkey, Arthur Peacocke, and John Haught; philosophers and historians of science Alfred North Whitehead, Timothy Ferris, Ernan Mc Mullin, and Ian Barbour; philosopher of religion Paul Ricoeur; and historians of religion Rudolph Otto and Mircea Eliade. Such a new paradigm calls for an ecologically sensitive religious awareness which is both sacramental and holistic.