Theology and the Natural Sciences

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will seek to identify and address the various tensions between theology and the natural sciences, reimagining that relationship as one of complementarity. A large part of that tension has been constituted by the modern Western presupposition that the unique and privileged access to reality comes through the empirical method of the natural sciences. We will begin with a brief introduction to the history of the development of scientific method, before turning to an investigation of the methodological differences between the natural sciences and theology. It will be shown that the complementarity of the two methods stems from their both being particularizations of the more general process involved in learning. The second section of the course will focus on specific topics which have historically been considered a source of division between Christian belief and the theories of the natural sciences. These will include an examination of objections to the belief in the existence of God, the seeming tensions between the scriptural creation narrative and evolutionary biology, and the incompatibility of belief in the resurrection with modern materialist reductionism. Finally, there will be a treatment of the convergence of natural science and theology on the question of ecological ethics.