Creation, the Concept of God, and the Nature of the Human Person in Christianity

Abstract

In 1993 the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton initiated a consultation on “Theology and Science.” For a few years, top scholars in cosmology, astrophysics, theoretical physics, chemistry, biology, environmental studies, in philosophy, religious studies, and theology came together for a series of meetings. The representatives of theology and religious studies soon arrived at an explanation of why they were interested in this dialogue. The tensions between the Jewish and Christian theologies of creation and their anthropologies, on the one hand, and the cosmologies and anthropologies of the modem sciences, on the other, challenged them to take part in this dialogue, if they wanted to mediate religious truth-claims in present-day cultures. But what made the natural scientists go for this dialogue?