Is theology a science?

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.

• Preface ... ixAcknowledgements ... xiChapter One Introduction: Context and history ... 1Contextual background on the scientific status of theology until Torrance ... 9Barth and natural science ... 13Chapter Two Introducing the dialogue partners: Torrance and Feyerabend ... 18Thomas Forsyth Torrance ... 18Paul Feyerabend ... 20Feyerabend as critical friend to Torrance ... 36Chapter Three Torrance: theology co-habiting with natural science ... 50The theory of general relativity ... 54Quantum physics ... 60Gödel’s theorem ... 66Conclusion ... 70Chapter Four Torrance’s Proposal – A new objectivity ... 75A new objectivity ... 75Similarities and Diff erences ... 84Conclusion ... 113Chapter Five Feyerabend’s Challenge – ‘Knowledge without Foundations’ ... 116Theory and observation: counter-inductivism, theoretical pluralism and the rejection of empirical cumulativism ... 117The incommensurability thesis ... 138Against Method and Farewell to Reason ... 143Destination relativism ... 146Voluntarism ... 148Chapter Six Two excurses ... 153Hermeneutics and science ... 153Realism ... 186Chapter Seven Coherence and Language ... 205Epistemic coherence and correspondence ... 205Religious and scientifi c language ... 209Coherence in theology and Scripture – witnesses to a single truth? ... 213Chapter Eight From foundations to spirals ... 220Enlightenment foundationalism and reductionism ... 220Progressive foundationalism and ordered strata ... 225Fluid axioms ... 227Evident to the senses – the wrong foundations ... 234Spirals and iterations – the search for a new metaphor of knowledge ... 255Conclusion ... 261Conclusion ... 263Bibliography ... 283Index ... 295

If you were to take two eminent scholars – an Austrian born philosopher and a Scottish theologian – and put them in a room to debate the nature of science, you might get a glimpse into the riches to be found in David Munchin’s fascinating book. We are taken directly to the heart of some of the most important debates of the twentieth century, as Paul Feyerabend and Thomas Torrance critique each other’s ideas. The book makes a significant contribution to the continuing debate about philosophy, theology and science. - Rt Rev’d Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans.A fresh look at a neglected historical question. Thomas Torrance’s ambition that theology should be a ‘science’ has been much discussed, but David Munchin detects a potential exposed flank. Torrance expended much effort in defending Systematic Theology against the charges of a positivist view of science; but how will he fare under the anarchic attacks of Paul Feyerabend, who famously found science itself problematic when it comes to its much-vaunted claims for objectivity and rationality? In a time when advocates of science are once more challenging religious belief and theological claims, the insights of Munchin’s book are topical, insightful, and challenging. - Prof Gwen Griffith-Dickson, King's College University of London.Anyone interested in the question, can Christian theology contribute to the search for truth in our post-modern context?, needs to read this book. Placing Thomas Torrance and Paul Feyerabend in critical dialogue over the question, Is theology a science?, David Munchin creates an insightful work that takes the reader on an ever expanding journey into the big questions of life. By examining the work of these two philosophers of science, Munchin continues the ongoing exploration of the relationship between theology and natural science. This book presents a clear argument that Torrance’s approach (even with its weaknesses) enables theology to engage sharply and critically with the current philosophical and scientific trends that attempt to sideline theological discourse in the search for truth. The book is a specialist tome that is at times a challenging read, but it is just as often elegant and compelling. - The Revd Canon Dr Dennis Stamps, University of Chichester.This is a carefully argued text that helpfully sets into relief the few similarities and many differences between the thinking of Feyerabend and Torrance. [...] This is a book that certainly will stimulate readers to think more rigorously about science and theology today. - Paul D. Molnar, St John's University, Queens, NY, USA.