Beyond Conflict: Teaching Theology in the Light of Science

Abstract

It is not difficult to challenge the Conflict Thesis, the notion that faith and science are irreconcilable foes, in teaching Catholic theology to contemporary students. Like every straw man, it falls over with a brief overview of the historical record and the introduction of great Catholics such as Blessed Niels Stensen and Georges Lemaître. But the great and deeply promising work of teaching theology in the light of modern science remains “too often... sterile,” as it was in 1988 when St. John Paul II wrote those words to the Director of the Vatican Observatory. Overcoming notions of conflict remains the primary mode of engaging scientific culture by far too many theological educators.The more that scientific ways of knowing and discoveries become part of our worldview, the more their relation to Christian doctrine becomes essential to our ability to be compelled by the vision of God and the world provided by the Faith. In this essay, I will propose some dead ends to avoid and promising approaches to adopt, investigating the principles that animate theological approaches to science and suggesting principles that contribute to an ethos of fruitful engagement “beyond” conflict.