Part I: Method in Theology and Science

We begin with the question of methodology: how are we to relate theology and science? I will take the question as broadly including issues in <!g>epistemology and the nature of scientific and religious language, as well as issues more clearly arising in methodology per se. The past four decades have seen a variety of important such methodological proposals; here we’ll briefly review some of the most promising. I believe we’ll see that, though they differ significantly on key questions, they still form a somewhat continuous developmental path, leading from early insights to cutting edge research questions. But before exploring this path - “<!g>critical realism” - a brief word about how the purported relations can be classified is appropriate.

Contributed by: <!g>Dr. Robert Russell