God's Providence and Randomness in Nature

Robert John Russell is the founder and director of CTNS and the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He has promoted creative dialogue between scientists and theologians for more than three decades, including spearheading a twenty-year collaboration between the Vatican Observatory and CTNS. He is a member of the John Templeton Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the Templeton World Charities Foundation.Joshua M. Moritz teaches philosophy at the University of San Francisco, theology at the Jesuit Graduate School of Theology at Santa Clara University, and theology and science at the Graduate Theological Union and at the School of Applied Theology, Berkeley. Joshua is the managing editor of the journal Theology and Science. He has authored numerous books and articles, including Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding (Anselm Academic, 2016) and The Role of Theology in the History and Philosophy of Science (Brill, 2017).

• Introduction / 3Robert John Russell Part 1: Scientific Warrants for Indeterminism throughout Nature 1. Necessity, Purpose, and Chance / 21George F. R. Ellis 2. The Universal Laws of Physics / 69Robert E. Ulanowicz 3. Multiverse / 85Gerald B. Cleaver Part 11: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Indeterminism in Nature 4. Are Randomness and Divine Providence Inconsistent? / 117James Bradley 5. What We’ve Learned from Quantum Mechanics about Noninterventionist Objective Divine Action in Nature-and Its Remaining Challenges / 133Robert John Russell 6. Context-Sensitive Constraints, Types, Emergent Properties, and Top-Down Causality / 173Alicia Juarrero 7. Is Classical Science in Conflict with Belief in Miracles? Some Bridge-Building between Philosophical and Theological Positions / 205Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen 8. Necessity, Chance, and Indeterminism / 235Veli-Matti KÄrkkÄinen 9. Contingency and Freedom in Brains and Selves / 261Ted Peters 10. Contingency, Convergence, Constraints, and the Challenge from Theodicy in Creation’s Evolution / 289Joshua M. Moritz About the Contributors / 329 Index / 333