Fields and Theology: A Response to Wolfhart Pannenberg

In responding to Pannenberg's paper, "God as Spirit—and Natural Science," Polkinghorne challenges the paper's interpretation of the scientific concept of field. He insists on its physical, material nature, elaborated by quantum theory, and asserts that Pannenberg's concept of field is immaterial or even in some sense "spiritual." Polkinghorne also comments on how a physical theory may give rise to several differing, even contradictory, metaphysical interpretations.