Divine Revelation And The Sciences

Revelation through Science is written for the educated non-scientist who may be troubled by apparent conflicts between science and religion. Are science and faith incompatible? Astronomers, physicists, and biologists have now shown that the more deeply science probes nature, the more it reveals evidence pointing us to God. After reviewing concepts from those fields, Revelation through Science adds new material from chemistry. It describes organic structures that are profoundly vital for life, yet too complex for self-assembly without some guiding principle. It should lift the burden from believers and seekers to realize that science is not the enemy of faith.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the sciences and the concept of divine revelation. It includes a historical overview of the notion of revelation, its role in scientific debates over the centuries, and current challenges in light of non-religious and especially non-revelational proposals. The volume emphasizes that discussions of divine revelation cannot be limited to theology alone but must also involve scientific and philosophical approaches. The contributions examine methodological, ethical, and theoretical questions related to the sciences. The main argument is that divine revelation not only played a historical role in shaping our understanding of knowledge but is also present in contemporary scientific endeavours and will continue to be important in the future. Divine revelation is considered to be a critical element of human existence that cannot be avoided in any scientific context. The book will be relevant to scholars of theology and philosophy, particularly those interested in religion and science.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the sciences and the concept of divine revelation. It includes a historical overview of the notion of revelation, its role in scientific debates over the centuries, and current challenges in light of non-religious and especially non-revelational proposals. The volume emphasizes that discussions of divine revelation cannot be limited to theology alone but must also involve scientific and philosophical approaches. The contributions examine methodological, ethical, and theoretical questions related to the sciences. The main argument is that divine revelation not only played a historical role in shaping our understanding of knowledge but is also present in contemporary scientific endeavours and will continue to be important in the future. Divine revelation is considered to be a critical element of human existence that cannot be avoided in any scientific context. The book will be relevant to scholars of theology and philosophy, particularly those interested in religion and science.

The role of knowledge, method of reasoning, reasoning and revelation, and instances of harmony between revelation and reason.

This book is a clear, concise guide to Alister McGrath's ground breaking 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.

In On Divine Revelation—one of Garrigou-Lagrange’s most significant works, here available in English for the very first time—he offers a classic treatment of this foundational topic. It is an organized and thorough defense of both the rationality and supernaturality of divine revelation. He presents a careful yet stimulating account of the scientific character of theology, the nature of revelation itself, mystery, dogma, the grace of faith, the powers of human reason, false interpretations thereof (rationalism, naturalism, agnosticism, and pantheism), the motives of credibility, and much more. Though written a century ago, On Divine Revelation will restore confidence in theology as a distinct and unified science and return focus to the fundamental questions of the doctrine of revelation. It also serves as a salutary corrective to contemporary theology’s anthropocentrism and concern with what is relative in revelation and religious experience by reorienting our theological attention to what is most certain, central, and sure in our knowledge of divine revelation: the Triune God who has revealed his inner life and salvific will. Readers will see the great splendor of the gift of divine revelation: radiant with credibility before the gaze of reason and drawing our supernatural assent to the mysteries through the gift of faith. As Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. observes, “On Divine Revelation . . . is a stunning work of inestimable value. No other subsequent work on this topic has come close to meeting it (much less surpassing it).”

Until recently, science’s ability to describe and define our universe threatened to make religion obsolete. But the well-received hardcover edition of this book demonstrated that, increasingly, God is being revealed through science. Now available in paperback, this positive work is for all who ponder the mystery and wonder of our universe—and the God who plans and oversees it. Probing the philosophical and theological impact of scientific discoveries, the authors urge us to adopt an analytical and open posture toward both science and religion. In the spirit of Sir Francis Bacon, this fascinating exploration shows us how “the book of God’s works” (natural science) can tell us a great deal about “the book of God’s words” (Scripture). “We began this book with the idea that the God who has made this awesome and wonderful universe is utterly beyond our capacity to measure and yet is also the God who would be known. He has placed remarkable signs in the heavens, on Earth, and in ourselves: signals of transcendence. We conclude that this universe is here by divine plan, and that science itself, for decades a bastion of unbelief, has once again become the source of humankind’s assurance of intimate divine concern in its affairs.” —from the authors