Is Theology a Science?

The Nature of the Scientific Enterprise in the Scientific Theology of Thomas Forsyth Torrance and the Anarchic Epistemology of Paul Feyerabend
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-19459-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

Reihe: Studies in Systematic Theology

When Barth and Scholz clashed over the scientific status of theology, Barth drew the conclusion that if natural science was to be drawn up in such positivistic terms, theology had much to lose and little to gain by engagement with it. A generation later Barth's translator and pupil Thomas Torrance maintained that science had changed enough to make an engagement more fruitful. In works such as Theological Science, Torrance sketched out the contours of such and engagement. However at the same time the anarchic philosopher of science, Paul Feyerabend, in books such as Against Method, sought to deconstruct any notion of 'science' as ultimately the protection of vested interests. This book analyses whether Torrance's notion of science can withstand this newer post-modern threat.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Munchin, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface. ix
Acknowledgements. xi

Chapter One Introduction: Context and history. 1
Contextual background on the scientific status of theology until Torrance. 9
Barth and natural science. 13

Chapter Two Introducing the dialogue partners: Torrance and Feyerabend. 18
Thomas Forsyth Torrance. 18
Paul Feyerabend. 20
Feyerabend as critical friend to Torrance. 36

Chapter Three Torrance: theology co-habiting with natural science. 50
The theory of general relativity. 54
Quantum physics. 60
Gödel’s theorem. 66
Conclusion. 70

Chapter Four Torrance’s Proposal – A new objectivity. 75
A new objectivity. 75
Similarities and Diff erences. 84
Conclusion. 113

Chapter Five Feyerabend’s Challenge – ‘Knowledge without Foundations’. 116
Theory and observation: counter-inductivism, theoretical pluralism and the rejection of empirical cumulativism. 117
The incommensurability thesis. 138
Against Method and Farewell to Reason. 143
Destination relativism. 146
Voluntarism. 148

Chapter Six Two excurses. 153
Hermeneutics and science. 153
Realism. 186

Chapter Seven Coherence and Language. 205
Epistemic coherence and correspondence. 205
Religious and scientifi c language. 209
Coherence in theology and Scripture – witnesses to a single truth?. 213

Chapter Eight From foundations to spirals. 220
Enlightenment foundationalism and reductionism. 220
Progressive foundationalism and ordered strata. 225
Fluid axioms. 227
Evident to the senses – the wrong foundations. 234
Spirals and iterations – the search for a new metaphor of knowledge. 255
Conclusion. 261

Conclusion. 263

Bibliography. 283
Index. 295

Über Autor(innen)

David Munchin, Ph.D. (2009) in Theology, Heythrop College, London University is an Anglican priest and Rector the of Welwyn Team ministry in the Diocese of St. Albans. After studying mathematics at Imperial College London, he read theology at Oxford and London Universities.