To The Faculty of Dvnty, Unversty of Cambrdge and The Theologsche Fakultat der Unverstat Hedelberg FAT N THE LVNG GOD A Dalogue POLKNGHORNE and MCHAEL FORTRESS PRESS MNNEAPOLS
n:lj UNV ER. S.'TA BBLOTHE< HEDE Bf:flG ------~ ~---" CONTENTS FATH N THE LVNG GOD Frst Fortress Press edton 2001 Copyrght John Polknghorne and Mchael Welker 2001 All rghts reserved. Except for bref quotatons n crtcal artcles or revews, no part of ths book may be reproduced n any manner wthout pror wrtten permsson from the publsher. Wrte to Permssons, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Mnneapols, MN 55440, USA. The Scrpture passages quoted by John Polknghorne are from The Revsed Standard Verson of the Bble 1971; those quoted by Mchael Welker are the author's own translaton. SBN 0-8006-3434-9 Prnted n Great Brtan 1. ntroducton 1 POLKNGHORNE and MCHAEL Dfferences 1 Age and famly 1 Church and culture 2 Educaton and professon 3 Audences and prmary partners n dalogue 4 Commonaltes 5 The Structure of the Project 5 Aclmowledgements 6 PART : FATH N THE LVNG GOD Fath n God the Creator 9 POLKNGHORNE Fath 9 God 12 Creator 14 Perspectves on Realty 16 Wndows onto Realty: Lght and Darlmess 19 Comments: s There a Natural Awareness of God? 23 MCHAEL How do we access 'foundatonal events of the tradton of fath'? 24 Do the 'dark sdes of creaton' affect our values and morals? 25 Reply: Knowledge of God 25 POLKNGHORNE 2. Fath n God the Creator 28 MCHAEL The God Who Created Me: Strength and Danger of the Exstentalst Reducton 28
CONTENTS CONTENTS Creaton n Just Sx Days? The Subtlety of the Bblcal 5. Fath n the Holy Sprt 71 Creaton Accounts 31 POLKNGHORNE Fath, Wtness and the Lmts of Naturalstc Thought 32 The Hdden Sprt 71 Comments: Mnd and Heart 36 The Actvty of the Sprt 72 The Presence of the Sprt 76 POLKNGHORNE The Human Sprt 78 Reply: 'The ssue of Truth s Paramount' 37 Comments: The Workng of the Sprt 'From Below' MCHAEL and 'From Above' 80 MCHAEL 3. Fath n Chrst 40 Omncausng, omnpresent, omnpotent 80 POLKNGHORNE Beyond Desm 40 The Sprt as 'the fellow-sufferer, who understands'? 81 Personal Engagement 41 The Sprt and the dscernment of dstortve and creatve Jesus of Nazareth 43 dfferences 81 The Resurrecton 46 Reply: The Personhood of the Sprt 82 Chrstan Belef 48 POLKNGHORNE Comments: Crtcal and Self-Crtcal realsm 54 MCHAEL 6. Fath n the Holy Sprt 84 What does the cross reveal? 55 MCHAEL The fullness of Chrst's lfe n the resurrecton 56 The Sprt - Fllng the World, Yet Fleeng and 84 Sacrfce and vctmzaton 57 Departng? Reply: ncarnatonal Realty 58 The 'Pourng' of the Sprt and the Ethos of Creatve POLKNGHORNE Dfference 85 What Happens at Pentecost? 87 4. Fath n Chrst 60 General Dffcultes n Understandng the Workng of the Sprt 88 MCHAEL Fath n Chrst as Fath n the Resurrected 60 llumnatng Early Wtnesses of the Sprt's Workng 92 Fath and Change of Lordshp 62 The Power of Sn and the Power of the Sprt 93 Fath and Canonc Remembrance 63 Renewal and Uplftng by the Sprt 94 Fath by whch God Elevates and Ennobles Us 65 Comments: Four Pneumatologcal Ponts 96 Fath as Hope for Creaton 66 POLKNGHORNE Comments: Wtness to the Rsen Chrst 67 Reply: 'A Sharply Phrased Protest at the dea of POLKNGHORNE "An Abstract Omn-Presence"' 97 Reply: 'A Balance Between Boldness and Careful 69 MCHAEL Self-Crtcsm' MCHAEL v v
CONTENTS PART : 'FATH SEEKNG UNDERSTANDNG' N TRUTH SEEKNG COMMUNTES AND AMONG NDVDUALS 7. Openng Wndows onto Realty POLKNGHORNE Experence Perspectves Eschatologcal Perspectves 101 101 102 104 ' NTRODUCTON POLKNGHORNE and MCHAEL 8. Sprngng Cultural Traps MCHAEL The Turn Toward Theologcal Topcs n the Dscourse Between Scence and Theology Dscoverng and Sprngng Cultural Traps A Crtque of the Abstract Opposton of Tme and Eternty God's Coordnaton of Tmes: The Creatvty of the Trune God The Trune God and Eternal Lfe 9. The Search for Truth and Understandng POLKNGHORNE and MCHAEL Fath and Knowledge Crtcal and Self-Crtcal Realsm From Experence to Understandng Trntaran Belef The Perspectve of the Scentst ntegraton Theology and the Search for Truth: The Most Basc Form of Theology Theology and the Search for Truth: Blessngs and Potental Dangers of Elaborated Forms of Theology Fve Forms of Relgous Mnmalsm as Dangerous Brdges Between Elaborated and Basc Theologes Fath n the Lvng God: Theology n Search for Truth and Understandng Needs Exemplary Orentaton Toward ts Subject Matter NDEX 111 112 115 119 122 124 132 132 133 134 136 137 138 139 141 143 145 149 j ' B r l ;s % 1 The dea for ths book arose from the experence of spendng a semester together n Hedelberg n the summer of 1999. We taught a jont course concerned wth central topcs n Chrstan doctrne, and enjoyed ntellgent dscussons wth a lvely group of students. n our conversatons, we found that we had enough n common n the way of belef and theologcal concern to fnd a ground on whch to meet, and enough by way of dfference n background and approach to make the mutual encounter challengng and llumnatng for us. We want now to share wth others, at one remove so to speak, ths exploratory exercse, n the hope that the bnocular vson that we may provde from our twn perspectves wll yeld helpful nsght n relaton to the mportant ssues we are seeldng to dscuss. f there s frutfulness here, t arses precsely from the combnaton of dfference and commonalty that we have n our nteractons together. Dfferences Age and famly [J.P.] As we wrte, am n my seventeth year, retred, and wth a famly that ncludes nne grandchldren. Born before the Second W odd War, was a schoolboy durng t and my brother, an RAF plot, was klled n acton. The bggest dvson among those alve today relates to people who have had drect experence of combat, wth all the courage, compasson, savagery and sadness that war brngs, and people who have not. Both authors are n that second cohort whch has had no drect experence of war, but even at second hand and n the nnocence of youth, lvng through those ntense years of global conflct has no doubt v [ 1 ]
POLKNGHORNE AND MCHAEL F l NTRODUCTON made ts mark on the characters of those who, lke me, are old enough for that to have been part of ther lfe. [M.W,] am n the begnnng of my fftes. My wfe and have twelveyear-old twn daughters. My three younger brothers and spent our chldhood n West Berln n a very protectve famly, but wth runs around the house and many people n our envronment physcally and psychcally njured by the war and the Thrd Rech. When was eght crossed the border between West and East Berln three or four tmes a week to sng n the Stat,e and Cathedral chor n East Berln. At the age of eleven entered the French gymnasum and experenced the joy of a cosmopoltan sprt. Another formatve phase was the late sxtes when was a student n Hedelberg and T.bngen, wth the sprt of revolt and crtcsm and the hunger to renew post-war culture. Church and culture [J.P.] am an Anglcan from brth, havng grown up n a Chrstan home. n mddle lfe, traned for the mnstry of the Church of England and was ordaned prest n 1982. Anglcans ll<e to thnk that they base ther theologcal thnkng on the 'trpod' of Scrpture, tradton and reason. They have always sought to have an apprecatve but not uncrtcal relatonshp wth general human culture, and n England they have enjoyed a specal relatonshp wth natonal lfe, resultng from the Church's establshment. The knd of nteractve exchange between the scentfc world vew and the theologcal world vew that has been my prncpal ntellectual concern over the last twenty years s a knd of actvty very congenal to the Anglcan mnd. The way n whch that actvty mght be conducted has also been nfluenced by my Englshness, for my country has a pragmatc tradton and n ts general ntellectual lfe has tended to assgn a relatvely modest role to phlosophy, n strl<lng contrast to the German scene. n consequence, Englsh theologcal thnkng has been nclned to eschew layng great emphass on methodologcal ssues, or the constructon of grand syntheses. ts focus has tended to be on dscrete and partcular topcs. [M.W.] grew up n the churches of Berln and Palatnate whch combne Lutheran and Reformed hertage. Although my famly lved only a low-profle bourgeos Protestant relgosty, as early as the age of [ 2 ] four wanted to become a pastor. Ths ntenton never changed tll entered the unversty, although, lke most of my frends, went through very church-crtcal phases n my lfe. grew up more wth French and Amercan lterature than wth strong connectons to the German tradtons. n my student days, however, the phlosophy of German dealsm of the late eghteenth and the early nneteenth centures, and dalectcal theology, a German-speakng theologcal movement n the 1920s and 1930s, ganed my strong nterest. My thnkng went through 'the subjectvst turn', a concentraton on human subjectvty and ts epstemologcal potentals and the selfsecularzaton of relgon connected wth t. Educaton and professon [J.P.] was educated at Cambrdge Unversty, where orgnally studed mathematcs and where most of my academc career has been spent. After a Ph.D. n theoretcal physcs, worked as a theoretcal elementary partcle physcst from 1955 to 1979, becomng Professor of Mathematcal Physcs at Cambrdge n 1968 and a Fellow of the Royal Socety n 1974. Ths long career n fundamental physcs has undoubtedly formed my ntellectual stance and nfluenced my subsequent engagement wth theology. The latter approach have often characterzed as beng that of a 'bottom-up thnker', meanng by that phrase one who seeks to move from experence to understandng, from the specfc to the general, and who s wary of enuncatng broad prncples whose rootng n partcularty s not obvous. Although recognze that am not a professonal theologan n the same sense that was a professonal physcst, have always been especally nterested n New Testament studes, seeng n ths dscplne access to the foundatonal record from whch Chrstan theology ultmately derves. [M.W.J At the Unversty of Hedelberg, where J later receved a DrPhl., studed partcularly Old Testament, some church hstory and phlosophy. n Tbngen concentrated on systematc theology and New Testament. Here receved a DrTheol. and experenced a consderable change of my thnkng when decded to wrte my Habltatonsschrft (a post-doctoral degree needed n Germany n order to enter an academc career) on the Cambrdge mathematcan, natural scentst and phlosopher Alfred North Whtehead. n 1977 [ 3 ]
POLKNGHORNE AND MCHAEL --------------------------- NTRODUCTON went to Amerca to study Whtehead's work, almost unknown n Germany n those days, and the so-called process theology, whch s shaped by Whtehead's thnkng. Yet dd not become a Whteheadan or a Process Theologan; saw rather that Whtehead had developed a new type of thnkng, as some other great theorsts, partcularly comng out of Harvard, had done wth and after hm: a mult-systemc theory whch acknowledges that we approach the world wth common sense, relgous thought, theores shaped by the mathematcal scences, hstorcal, ethcal and other modes of thought, A general theory, accordng to Whtehead, does not only have to look for relatve commonaltes between these modes of thought, but t also has to explan ther dfferences. Audences and prmary partners n dalogue [ J, P,] wrte at a varety of levels and seek to do so wth ntellectual care and serousness. am partcularly anxous to wrte n ways that wll be accessble and helpful to an open enqurer who s explorng the queston of the reasonableness of Chrstan belef, especally f that enqurer s someone for whom scentfc nsght s mportant, or who suspects that there mght be some nherent opposton between scence and theology. n common wth a number of other scentst-theologans, often emphasze what perceve as beng a cousnly relatonshp between scence and theology, n that both beleve that there s a truth to be sought, whose attanment wll result from the scrupulous pursut of motvated belef. [M.W.] Workng on my frst three academc books and beyond, mmersed myself n the theory languages of Kant, Fchte, Hegel, Schleermacher, Netzsche, Whtehead and Luhmann for at least one to two years each. Ths for a long tme shaped my wrtngs, whch were prmarly for academc audences. roncally the serous dscourse wth scentsts whch entered nto ten years ago made t necessary to transform phlosophcal theory language. also became convnced that the crss of Chrstanty n the West wth ts processes of selfsecularzaton and self-banalzaton cannot be adequately addressed by theologans who are not wllng to learn and to translate theory languages of the past. [ 4 ] Commonaltes n our concern for an nterdscplnary academc dscourse whch does not rest n tself but serves the Church and the oecumene of fath tradtons as well as secular culture, we dscovered many commonaltes n the mdst of the dfferences just descrbed. For both of us t s crucal not to confuse fath n the lvng God wth fascnaton by a fgure of thought or a great dea and the correlated certantes and ntellectual and aesthetc satsfactons that go wth them. Although we have both been traned n several theory languages, we seek the topcal adequacy of these languages and are eager to translate them, frst for each other and then for audences whch have not been traned n phlosophy or n the scences. Although we treasure the syntheszng and dscrmnatng powers of these theory languages, we are sceptcal about varous forms of reductonsm and types of metaphyscs whch do not test ther fgures of thought wth nductve modes of thnkng. We both emphatcally reject the opnon that relgon and theology are just culturally manpulated dscourses that do not respect ratonalty and do not possess a consstency that s subject to evaluaton. We are convnced that fath should always seek understandng and that relgous convctons and certantes have to be ready to warrant truth clams. We both beleve that f Chrstan fath s to command respect and acceptance, t needs to be rch and detaled n ts content and expresson. For both of us, Trntaran theology has ths requste 'thckness', and we seek to explan and defend ths pont of vew n the course of the dscussons that follow. As the readers wll see, we are both very respectful of Scrpture, though we recognze that t always requres nterpretaton, an actvty n whch the nsghts of contemporary understandng have al) mportant, but by no means totally determnatve, role to play. We wsh to place ourselves n a consonant relatonshp wth the tradton of the Church, whle recognzng that each generaton has to make that tradton ts own, n ts own way and n the lght of ts own partcular stuaton and experence. The Structure of the Project The concrete project s for each author frst to dscuss hs understandng of the threefold pllars of Chrstan doctrne: fath n God the creator, fath n Chrst, fath n the Holy Sprt. Then each comments on the [ 5 ]
POLKNGHORNE AND MCHAEL other's contrbuton and fnally each responds brefly to the comments made on hs own essay. n ths way, dfferences and commonaltes are explored dalogcally and n relaton to many specfc topcs. We both feel that the resultng bpolar treatment offers somethng that nether of us could have provded wrtng solely on hs own. The frst part of the exercse completed, each then wrtes, n Part, a partcular essay n whch hs own approach s subjected to further dscusson and analyss. For both authors, the queston of truth s paramount n theology and so they conclude wth a jont account of how truth-seekng communtes may further ther search for understandng, pursued n the wdest settng that s possble for them. PART FATH N THE LVNG GOD Acknowledgements There are many persons and many nsttutons who made our cooperaton durng the last years possble. We want to thank the Center of Theologcal nqury n Prnceton, partcularly ts drectors Dr Danel Hardy and Dr Wallace Alston, who nvted us to jon and fnally to char the consultaton between scentsts and theologans. We thank the Alexander von Humboldt-Stftung whch offered a Forschungspres to John Polldnghorne, and the Rektor of the Urversty of Hedelberg for hs hosptalty. We are grateful to the more than twenty Hedelberg students who took the course 'Crucal Topcs n Theology' n 1999, even though t took place on Frday afternoons and was n Englsh only. We are also grateful to a large group of European doctoral students and colleagues for stmulatng dscourses on the relaton of scence and theology n the nternatonales Wssenschaftsforum Hedelberg and at the Al<ademe Hofgesmar. We thank the Stftung Volkwagen-Werk, the Hanns-Llje-Stftung and the Deutsche Forschungsgemenschaft, who supported several conferences, whch led to further publcatons beyond ths enterprse. Fnally, we are grateful for the techncal support that Beate Mller and Wolfram Kerm~r gave us when we prepared the manuscrpt for publcaton. Ths book has emerged out of a dalogue over seven years and the personal and theologcal frendshp whose fruts we now offer to truthseekng communtes n the Church, the academy and the theologcally open and nterested wder cultural publc. [ 6 ] l f J t f.j t t ' 1