Spring 2014/Pasadena
TH863/563
Kärkkäinen/Murphy
TH863/563: THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE (6/4 Units). Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and Nancey C. Murphy.
DESCRIPTION: This doctoral seminar, open to a limited number of advanced master’s level students, will focus on issues in contemporary science that have a bearing on Christian doctrine. Topics will include cosmology, evolution, and creation; fine-tuning and design; quantum physics and divine action; thermodynamics and evil; suffering and theodicy; future and eschatology. Co-taught by a philosopher and systematic theologian, this seminar offers an interdisciplinary approach.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated their ability to (1) understand and identify most important claims in natural sciences concerning the cosmos and its life which are necessary for a meaningful religion-science dialogue; (2) identify key philosophical and theological issues bearing on dialogue with sciences concerning Christian doctrines of creation, providence, divine action, and eschatology; (3) analyze critically and assess different and competing accounts of theology-science relationship in current interdisciplinary conversation; (4) offer a reasoned response to current proposals in light of tradition and current intellectual milieu; and (5) begin to formulate their own understanding of a Christian view of the origins, workings, and destiny of cosmos and life therein.
COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet once a week for a three-hour session for student presentations and critical discussion. Immediately after registration, the student must contact the professors for the syllabus and pre-seminar assignments (nmurphy@fuller.edu or vmk@fuller.edu).
REQUIRED READING: Selections from the following texts:
Electronic Course Reader (available at Moodle) containing selected essays and other short writings.
Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Edited by Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur R. Peacocke. Vatican Observatory and Center for Theological and the Natural Sciences, 1995. ISBN: 978-0268008123, Pub Price $21.95 [416 pp.].
Hick, J. Evil and the God of Love. 2nd reissued ed. Palgrave, 2010. ISBN: 978-0230252790, Pub. Price $37.00 [432 pp.].
Klaaren, E.M. Religious Origins Of Modern Science: Belief In Creation In Seventeenth Century Thought. Eerdmans, 1977. ISBN: 978-0802816832, Pub. Price ***OUT OF PRINT [244 pp.].
Küng, H. The Beginning of All Things: Science and Religion. Translated by John Bowden. Eerdmans, 2007. ISBN: 978-0802863591, Pub Price $18.00 [240 pp.].
Kärkkäinen, V.-M. Creation and Humanity. A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, vol. 3. Eerdmans, 2015 (forthcoming: pre-pub available at Moodle) [570 pp.].
Polkinghorne, J. & Welker, M. The End of the World and the Ends of God: Science and Theology on Eschatology. Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2000. ISBN: 978-1563383120, Pub. Price $55.00 [320 pp.].
Russell, R.J. Cosmology: From Alpha to Omega: The Creative Mutual Interaction of Theology and Science. Fortress, 2008. ISBN: 978-0800662738, Pub. Price $34.00 [352 pp.].
The Far-future Universe: Eschatology from a Cosmic Perspective. Edited by Ellis, G.F.R. Templeton Foundation Press, 2002. ISBN: 978-1890151904, Pub Price: $39.95 [408 pp.]. OR Wilkinson, D. Christian Eschatology and the Physical Universe. T&T Clark Continuum, 2010. ISBN: 978-0567045461, Pub. Price $39.95 [256 pp.].
RECOMMENDED READING: The Syllabus will list number of auxiliary resources.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Careful reading of texts.
Regular attendance and class participation.
Three 5-page papers throughout the term (3-page summary of reading; 2-page essay designed to stimulate discussion).
CATS students, one 20- to 25-page (6,000 to 7,500 word) paper due at the end of the term; master’s-level students one 10- to 15-page (3,000 to 4,500 word) paper.
PREREQUISITES: For master’s level students, written permission of one of the professors.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: CATS students may count this as a seminar in philosophy for the areas of philosophical theology and philosophy of religion, as well as systematic theology. For Master’s students, the seminar serves as an elective.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.