The Science of God

by Alister E. McGrath

This book is a clear, concise guide to Alister McGrath's groundbreaking three-volume work A scientific theology. McGrath himself here summarizes his major project and sketches out its implications for many aspects of Christian doctrine. He then explores all of the major themes of his three-volume work, including the legitimacy of a scientific theology, the purpose and place of natural theology, the foundations of theological realism, the failure of classic foundationalism, the nature of revelation, and the place of metaphysics in theology.

Genres: Theology, Science, Christian, Philosophy

345 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2004

About the author

Alister Edgar McGrath is a Northern Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian, scientist, and Christian apologist. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and is Professor of Divinity at Gresham College. He was previously Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at King's College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture, Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford, and was principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, until 2005. He is an Anglican priest and is ordained within the Church of England.

Aside from being a faculty member at Oxford, McGrath has also taught at Cambridge University and is a Teaching Fellow at Regent College. McGrath holds three doctorates from the University of Oxford, a DPhil in Molecular Biophysics, a Doctor of Divinity in Theology and a Doctor of Letters in Intellectual History.

McGrath is noted for his work in historical theology, systematic theology, and the relationship between science and religion, as well as his writings on apologetics. He is also known for his opposition to New Atheism and antireligionism and his advocacy of theological critical realism. Among his best-known books are The Twilight of Atheism, The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine, Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, and A Scientific Theology. He is also the author of a number of popular textbooks on theology.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alister McGrath defends the idea that creation (or “nature”) is a real entity that discloses knowledge in such a way that shapes the knowledge it discloses. In other words, ontology structures epistemology without negating the latter. Echoing Thomas Torrance, we know “kata physin.”

He begins with his own life-journey from studying chemistry at Oxford to studying theology--and becoming a Christian along the way.

Contra Hellenism and Orientalism, since creation is contingent, the real can be found by acknowledging nature’s contingency (McGrath 51). For Greeks, to get to the real was to get beyond appearances and nature. For the creation-tradition, however, the opposite was the case. The natural order possesses its own goodness and rationality.

Creation (or “nature”) finds itself within an interlocking network of divine and human rationality (62). Following the Hebrew writers, particularly Job (38ff), creation is linked with the idea of God’s “ordering.” This ordering is not the result of God’s being under necessity, but is rather contingent.

McGrath defends natural theology but in a new way. Natural theology isn’t looking at a squirrel and then deducing God’s simplicity. Rather, it begins with revelation and sees the natural world as disclosing real truths.

The book then moves from “nature” to “theory.” McGrath criticizes communitarian approaches like Lindbeck and to an extent, Barth. He also interacts with John Milbank and Alasdair McIntyre.

This book is a summary and popularization of his larger Scientific Theology. It succeeds in channeling key aspects of Thomas Torrance (on epistemology and ontology) while leaving Karl Barth behind.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is mainly about the validity of using the same methods of questioning in theology as are used in the natural sciences to ask and answer questions about nature.

I found this book stimulating and I found much to agree with in it. This review focuses mainly on the parts that I did not agree with or had difficulty with.

I read the Science of God (SG) to help decide whether to read Scientific Theology (ST). After reading it I concluded that there are particular sections within ST that I would like to read in order to see how McGrath treats the parts of the application of his method that I have the most questions about.

One problem that I have with this book is McGrath's approach to the position that he is doing theology from. He describes Christian orthodoxy as intellectually resilient and a solid basis from which to apply the methods of scientific theology.

But the working assumptions behind the methods used in science do not depend upon the acceptance of all of Christian orthodoxy, so why should acceptance of Christian orthodoxy be a prerequisite for the application of similar methods in theology?

And is Christian orthodoxy really 'intellectually resilient'? Haven't the last few centuries of critical scholarship, and the encounter between Christianity and science shaken Christian orthodoxy to its core? Was the resilience that Christian orthodoxy had in the past intellectual resilience?

However, McGrath is popular among conservative evangelicals, and because he allies this work with Christian orthodoxy in this way, this book will probably be read by conservative Christians.

It will be interesting to see a longer discussion of the institutional similarities and differences between science and religion. I am particularly interested in differences in the way that novel conclusions are received. In both science and christian theology it is often (unfortunately) the conclusions reached that determine whether a method is accepted or rejected, regardless of the validity of the method. I believe that science is more successful than Christianity in overcoming this kind of mistake. In part this is because the conclusions reached in science can approach certainty (e.g. the molecular structure of water, the dimensions of the solar system), whereas the level of certainty reachable in theology is always low enough that 'institutional momentum' is more significant.

[Frans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een lezenswaardig inleiding tot (samenvatting van) McGrath's driedelige 'A Scientific Theology' (2001-30), waarin de auteur op heldere wijze zijn visie op de relatie tussen wetenschap (science) and theologie uiteenzet. Zijn pleidooi voor een 'natural theology' had er m.i. baat bij kunnen hebben als hij kennis had genomen van het gedachtegoed van Herman Dooijeweerd. Voor het Nederlands taalgebied zou je daarbij kunnen denken aan A. Troost, 'Vakfilosofie van de geloofswetenschap, prolegomena van de theologie' of van W.J. Ouweneel, 'De glorie van God. Ontwerp van een godsleer en van een theologische vakfilosofie.

[Kevin Gunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an introduction into his Scientific Theology trilogy. Trying to condense information from about 1000 pages into less than 300 pages is not an easy task. At times I found the format, or flow, hard to follow. Due to the nature of the book and intellectual challenges faced in the book, I had to periodically put the book down, then return to it later.

Overall, it's a good book laying the foundation for a thorough scientific theology study.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I finally took time to finish this book. Interesting ideas that are a bit outside of my wheelhouse from one of my favorite authors.

[Dan Griswold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author makes some useful observations, but the book was quite dense and abstract.

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clearly-written, but ultimately unconvincing attempt to develop a new form of theological approach. Thought-provoking.

[Andrew Stout · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. I found his appreciative critiques of Milbank particularly helpful.

[Frank Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was much more readable that I expected, but really only a summary of a much larger work.

[G Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

See notes from Volume #1 of his Scientific Theology (3 Volume Set)