Chapter Four Reflections on Faith and Science

Abstract

The modern age has placed primary importance upon the material world and its mastery, while the ages of Greek Antiquity and Ancient Christianity placed great emphasis upon the spiritual realm. Accordingly, the lexicon of Patristic Christianity for characterizing the relation between faith and knowledge is far richer than our own. Drawing upon the writings of St Maximus the Confessor and St Isaac of Syria, the article distinguishes five types of relation between faith and knowledge, and uses this typology to situate modern science and its relation to Christian faith. It concludes that scientific knowledge as it is understood in Western modernity is limited by its “methodological atheism,” and a “dianoetic” or explanatory account of science must be completed by a “noetic” or contemplative account, proceeding from the exercise of humility and ascetic purification.