Science and Providence: God's Interaction with the World

by John C. Polkinghorne

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.

Genres: Theology, Science, Religion, Christianity

140 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 1989

About the author

John Charlton Polkinghorne is an English theoretical physicist, theologian, writer and Anglican priest. A prominent and leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion, he was professor of Mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979, when he resigned his chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. He served as the president of Queens' College, Cambridge from 1988 until 1996.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading lately some of the great works of Plato and Aristotle, this has been SO REFRESHING! Polkinghorne is by far one of the most brilliant theologians of our time. Though this book is short (112 pages), it took me months to finish as I read, put it down, and reread sections. I believe every thinking Christian will want to read this - where else will you find a fresh perspective on prayer, miracle, providence, evil, time, hope, sacraments, incarnation in a single book, other than the Bible? Polkinghorne rarely oversteps in his arguments and candidly points out difficulties in his thinking. He has that kind of honesty one finds in someone who is not trying to prove himself to everyone - and probably because he doesn't have to. Yet, his perspective is a rich blend of orthodoxy and new thought based on scientific observation - not a rehash of tired philosophies. Five stars!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Polkinghorne is that rare figure who has successfully bridged the worlds of Christianity and science. He's an Anglican priest; past president of Queens' College, Cambridge University; and a former professor of mathematical physics. He's most known for his writings on the relationship and compatibility between Christianity and science, and he even won the Templeton Prize in 2002.

I found his book surprisingly easy to read. Given Polkinghorne's mastery of the subjects, he's able to pack a lot of sophisticated theological analysis into this little book (only 125 pages). It's well worth your time to read, discuss, ponder, agree and disagree, and read again.

Polkinghorne's overall thinking seems to agree with other prominent Christian theologians like Peter van Inwagen (another Anglican) and Richard Swinburne (Eastern Orthodox). Without affirming Polkinghorne's arguments, I found his approach to be a coherent worldview that tries to make sense of the biblical, theological, and scientific data. I marveled and enjoyed reading his take on questions 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?" (taken from the book's description).

To understand a little of Polkinghorne's views, I'll quote from a book review by Catherine Crouch (a physicist and Christian) entitled "Not Too Simply Christian." She's reviewing Francis Collins's recent book _The Language of God_ with some insightful comments on Polkinghorne's alternative way of thinking:

"Most important, in arguing for theistic evolution, Collins must explain how evolution, which biologists understand to be driven by probabilistic events, is compatible with the Christian understanding of God's sovereignty. (This problem is not unique to evolution: quantum mechanics, which appears to govern all physical processes, including the biochemical reactions that are thought to drive evolution, is fundamentally probabilistic as well.) Collins takes the classical position that as God the Father is outside space and time, events which appear random and unpredictable to humans can actually be foreknown and specified by the Father. Although it is certainly possible that the Creator controls the creation in this fashion, it is not the only way to understand the sovereignty of God in the presence of chance.

Scientist-theologians such as John Polkinghorne, for example, have explained the role of chance in quantum mechanics and evolution as giving freedom to the Creation. Such freedom can be understood as a loving gift, made possible by the Creator's voluntary self-limitation, in a manner analogous to the kenosis of the eternal Son in the Incarnation. The parallels between such an understanding of chance in the natural world and the Incarnation provide a more uniquely Christian as well as—to this scientist at least— more fruitful understanding of the Creation. The critical role played by chance in the natural world is not just a colossal misunderstanding due to our finite human perspective, but actually a sign of the Father's love for the Creation!"

[Collins' approach is the one largely embraced by classical Christian theology going back to thinkers such as Boethius and Augustine and continued on into our time by C.S. Lewis et al. Another variation is William Lane Craig's Molinist (middle knowledge) perspective.:]

I wonder if Polkinghorne's views truly capture the Bible's teaching of how God works all things together for good to those who love Him (Rom 8:28). Or Scriptures like "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33). They would seem to teach some form of determinism. But a form that's not incompatible with human freedom and human responsibility.

I admit that there's room for peaceful disagreement on these issues among thoughtful Christians. Richard Baxter captures my own thinking well when he wrote that we should have "Unity in the essentials; liberty in the nonessentials; but in all things, love."

[Cameron Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read, a lot of very good ideas in here. Polkinghome presents a non-classical theism view of God's action in the world that attempts to account for evil and suffering but also miracles, integrating the insights from process theology as well as quantum physics to present a picture of the metaphysics of God. I find a lot of it compelling, though I have a lot more thinking and reading to do on this topic. I feel that Polkinghome is perhaps a bit too tidy in his treatment of some of the issues, I don't think it's the kind of thing that can be so neatly all figured out, but he does have many good ideas. Though Polkinghome rejects labels, you could call his view "temporal, kenotic, dipolar theism". Temporal meaning that God is genuinely experiencing the universe along with us, is omnipresent and omniscient but cannot truly know all future states but instead moves and guides towards his future plans, being genuinely affected by the universe as it unfolds. Kenotic meaning that he limits himself in his interactions with creation, God makes room for a genuinely free creation rather than controlling it as a puppeteer. Dipolar meaning that God has both an eternal pole (unchanging character, necessary existence, the guarantor of order) and a temporal pole (genuinely affected by and responsive to an open, unfolding history). What I appreciate is how Polkinghome grounds all of this in quantum physics and uses what we know about how the universe works (he is a quantum physicist) as a way to genuinely gain insight into the nature of God, which is very appealing to me. The more we understand about the what God has given us in the universe, the more we should understand God.
One interesting insight for me in his discussions of human freedom was this line: "The widespread, and right, reluctance to countenance coercive measures like the castration of persistent sex-offenders is testimony to this intuitive respect for the value of human freedom, however it may be perverted to destructive ends." This is a point that struck me, there is something deeper in our intuitions that violating the bodies or minds of persons in order to prevent them committing evil is itself an evil that should be avoided, even though we could prevent much evil in doing so.