John C Polkinghorne

Science and Providence

God's Interaction with the World

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Internationally renowned priest-scientist Dr. John C. Polkinghorne examines whether a personal, interacting God is a credible concept in today's scientific age. Encouraging the belief that there is a compatibility between the insights of science and the insights of religion, this book, previously published in the United Kingdom, focuses on the viewpoint that the world is one in which both human beings and God have the freedom to act. A modern understanding of the physical world is applied to questions of prayer and providence, such as: Do miracles happen? Can prayer change anything? Why does evil exist? Why does God allow suffering? Why does God need us to ask him? God's involvement in time is considered, from both a temporal and an eternal perspective. The roles of incarnation and sacrament are discussed in terms of whether or not they have a credible place in today's worldview. And the Final Anthropic Principle (FAP) is presented, with its attempt at a physical eschatology, showing it to be an inadequate basis for hope. Real hope can reside only with God, Polkinghorne concludes. "We do not have to choose between the God of the Bible and the God revealed in the pattern and structure of the physical world. A clockwork world of mere mechanism could only be the endlessly spinning system kept in place by the God of deism. The world discerned by modern science has an openness in its becoming which is consonant not only with its being a world of which we are actually inhabitants, but also a world which is the creation of the true and living God, continually at work within its process."

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Templeton Press
• Seitenzahl: 140
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Oktober 2005
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 215mm x 141mm x 11mm
• Gewicht: 195g
• ISBN-13: 9781932031928
• ISBN-10: 1932031928
• Artikelnr.: 21248442

Autorenporträt

John C. Polkinghorne is an Anglican priest, a fellow of the Royal Academy past president of Queens’ College, Cambridge University, and former professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge. Polkinghorne resigned his chair in physics to study for the Anglican priesthood. After completing his theological studies and serving at parishes, he returned to Cambridge. In 1997, Dr. Polkinghorne was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for distinguished service to science, religion, learning, and medical ethics. He was the recipient of the 2002 Templeton Prize. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom.  

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
 ix Acknowledgments
 xv Introduction
 3 1. The Problem
 7 2. Embodiment and Action
 23 3. Providence
 43 4. Miracle
 53 5. Evil
 69 6. Prayer
 80 7. Time
 88 8. Incarnation and Sacrament
 97 9. Hope
 108 Notes
 113 Bibliography
 123 Index
 127