Theology and Science

One of the guest lecturers at the Yale Convocation this year is a Dr. Michael Welker whose interest is in the dialogue between science and religion. That is a dialogue that has never had a very smooth experience. Dr. Welker indicated that some of the problems are that both side celebrate even the smallest interest in each other, but never take that interest seriously; that both sides have very poor understanding of each other; and they have a very hard time coming to common ground to discuss.

In his first lecture Dr. Welker talked some about the creation question.He spent a great deal of time on the Genesis creation account in Genesis 1. Of course, he talked about the problems of how do you have light and night without sun and moon, and some of the other more traditional problems. But the found to his satisfaction some very basic positions which would allow the discussion of evolution and human dominance in creation with science.

The second lecture was concerned about finding some common ground with the question of who are human beings. Theology has to have an explanation of human life that can talk with science about the human being. Again he tried to clear away a lot of simplistic solutions to this question. He was eager to affirm that the human experience is amazing creative, diverse and complex. Then he suggested that St. Paul's works provided us a starting point for dealing with the complexities of human life. He went through all of Paul's words like body, flesh, spirit, mind, soul, heart, and pointed out that Paul did not have these as simple one sided concepts. But he suggested that understanding them gave us a starting point for dialogue.

It was this second lecture that really gave me some concern about the major topic. If we are going to have a discussion between theology and science, then it seems to me that we have to have a discussion first with ourselves about theology. Because while the first lecture might well have been accepted by the Jewish and Muslim theologians as it was rooted in the Old Testament, the second lecture immediately made "theology" a captive of Christianity. How do we have a right to enter into that discussion with science as the only theology? Certainly the questions of origin, purpose, and end of life are questions science and "non-science" need to discuss. There are dimensions in human life that are mysteries that are not fully explained by science descriptions of life, but isn't there some need to try to look beyond the divisions of religions to get to a larger theological base to begin discussion with science?