A Scientific Theology - The Concept of "scientific Theology" - McGrath's Approach To "scientific Theology"

McGrath's Approach To "scientific Theology"

By a “scientific theology” McGrath does not mean an attempt to reconcile particular Christian beliefs with particular scientific theorems. Such efforts are regarded by him as pointless because they become outdated with scientific progress. Rather, McGrath seeks to draw upon the proven assumptions and methods of the natural sciences in order to inform the practice of Christian theology.

Such an approach is grounded in the fundamental belief that Christian theology seeks to describe the same God who (in whatever way) created the natural order which the natural sciences seek to describe. The assumption is that a theological investigation of reality can be informed by the approach taken in a scientific investigation of reality.

It is critical to distinguish levels of reality so that each level is investigated according to its appropriate methods. On this basis, the reality of God and the contingent reality of the created order are taken as distinct although still related levels of reality. It is important to note that this is not regarded as a self-evident truth, but acknowledged to be a claim of Christian theology which is based in revelation.

It is the Christian understanding of revelation as disclosure of an objective reality that justifies, in McGrath's view, claims of a correspondence between the assumptions and methods of Christian theology and those of the natural sciences. He argues that just as the natural sciences are an investigation of the objective reality of the natural order, so Christian theology is an investigation of the (revealed) objective reality of God.

Christian theology and the natural sciences, therefore, are both a response to reality and so must proceed a posteriori-that is from observations (i.e. of revealed or natural data respectively) to dogmas/theorems.

Ideally, neither discipline confuses its theoretical constructs with the reality it seeks to describe. Both should be critical of their dogmas/theorems and constantly put them to the test. For Christian theology this means continually assessing Christian faith and practice against the revelation of God in Jesus Christ “the incarnate word.”

In this work McGrath commits himself to an approach that seeks to avoid the use of contemporary views of religion as found in the work of the distinguished Ian Barbour and Arthur Peacocke, keeping instead to a classic Christian theological formulation (i.e., traditional credal Christian orthodoxy), which is a position closer to John Polkinghorne according to McGrath. Also when relating Christianity and science, the three volumes stress the provisionality of scientific understanding, findings, and conclusions. This sort of provisionality makes relating Christianity to science very different from relating Christianity to fairly settled views such as Platonism and Aristotelianism.