"Ever since St. Augustine's dictum fides quaerens intellectum," writes today's columnist E. Maynard Moore, "theology has often been described as 'faith seeking understanding.'" And no doubt theology is all that and more, especially where the understanding desired is not only that of God's nature and action in the world but also of God's relationship in, to, and through science, where science is seen not merely as a human activity but also as a view and expression of that world.

In today's column, and as part of our weeklong bookfest, Moore contributes to that theological search for understanding by reviewing books by Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne, both Templeton Prizewinners. In his column, we will be looking at Polkinghorne's 2000 book Faith, Science &
Understanding. Furthermore, we will also be exploring (once again) Peacockes's Paths From Science Towards God, which seems preternaturally appropriate since the subtitle of that book, "The End of All Our Exploring," comes from the T.S. Eliot poem "Little Gidding" wherein it says

"We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring /
Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time."

So, let us continue our own explorations, and if you wish to read the first review, by John Burgeson, which appeared this past Tuesday, please consult Metanexus: Views 2002.10.22.

Today's reviewer, E. Maynard Moore, PhD, is retired clergy in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. He currently serves as a fundraising specialist for a variety of education, religious and charitable organizations.

-- Stacey E. Ake

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Subject: Fides quaerens intellectum: Reviews of Peacocke & Polkinghorne From: E. Maynard Moore Email: <maynardmoore@onebox.com>

Arthur Peacocke, Paths From Science Towards God. Oxford, Oneworld, 2001. 198 pp. $16.95 paperback.

The subtitle of this very full, focused book is "The End of All Our Exploring," taken from T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding: "We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time." A very rich insight about the human quest for understanding, indeed. And Dr. Peacocke's material in this volume is a worthy contribution to that quest.

There are eleven chapters in all, organized into three parts, and each of the main chapters provides something of a new and different "vista' through which a particular theological question is "explored." For instance, one of the more substantial chapters considers the question of evolution: cosmological, biological, anthropological, theological. Dr. Peacocke, of course, (as is the case with most of his scientific colleagues), treats evolution as a paradigm of the "world in process." Evolution, in fact, at its core is a "risky" business because the end of the process is not yet in sight. But it is an essential part of what we know as the natural order, and it is an integral part of our concept of humanity's free will and consciousness.

Peacocke begins his book with an intriguing Prologue called "Genesis for the Third Millennium," a short re-write of origins that ends, "The first prayers were made to the One who made All-That-Is and All-That-Is-Becoming -
the first expressions of goodness, beauty and truth, but also of their opposites, for human beings were free." He ends his book with a treatment of the Christian understanding of sacrament, based on the conviction that creation is an expression of God's character as creative love. Peacocke affirms the Eucharist as an appropriate act within the church where God "acts to recreate both the human being and society, to bring to fruition the purpose of God's creation, manifest in the Incarnation" (p. 176). Within this volume, Peacocke provides us with a compelling argument as to why it is so important to affirm both the historicity of "the Logos" and at the same time the universality of God's creative purpose for the world.

In Part I of the book Peacocke confronts head-on the contemporary challenges of science to religious beliefs, showing that science has, indeed, withstood the postmodern critique of its method and rationality. But he also demonstrates that science does not provide infallible knowledge nor evidential certainty to our abiding questions of meaning. Science, in fact, draws its conclusions tentatively, always subject to revision, and argues for truth through "inference to the best explanation," or IBE.

This becomes for Peacocke the central methodology for theology as well, which can draw on few evidential sources for its claims to truth. The question becomes: what do we point to in all our explorations as the foundation for our understanding through IBE? Peacocke addresses such questions as "God and time," the origin of life, human behavior, predictability and causality, quantum events and divine action, experience and revelation, immanence and emergence, pain suffering and death, and a number of other issues now familiar to those engaged in the science-religion dialogue. For those who already know Peacocke's theological position through his enormous body of written work, there are few surprises here but many helpful and concise debate points. For others who want to explore some of these questions with fresh eyes (and those new to the world-wide dialogue) this is am excellent place to start.

Arthur Peacocke is a rigorous theologian, as we would expect of a person who came from a distinguished 25-year career as a research biochemist. His 200-plus papers and twelve books position him at the forefront of the ongoing dialogue, and as the 1995 Templeton Prize winner for progress in religion, he is in demand as a lecturer at conferences around the world. Flawless in his scholarship, Peacocke unstintingly applies the principle of scientific method to spiritual and theological questions. This volume is tightly argued while at the same time the material is thoroughly readable and opens up fresh vistas for both the scientific and the religious quest. The end of all our exploring is yet ahead of us. But Peacocke will, in this work, help us to find the place of our arrival with new eyes, the place from which we started for the first time.

John Polkinghorne, Faith, Science & Understanding. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. 208 pages. $19.95 hardcover.

Ever since St. Augustine's dictum fides quaerens intellectum, theology has often been described as "faith seeking understanding." That certainly accurately characterizes the extensive work of Dr. John Polkinghorne, K.B.E., F.R.S., Canon Theologian of Liverpool, winner of the 2002 Templeton Prize, and one of the world's most prominent scientist-theologians. This book is a recent example of Polkinghorne's continuing advocacy for the place of theology within the university as a legitimate part of the human quest for truth.

The quest for truth is integral to Part I of this book, a section which he calls "Issues" in the ongoing dialogue between science and religion, broadly-defined. In these opening chapters he also discusses "motivations for belief" and the role of revelation as a record of interpretive experience, not communication of unchallengeable propositions. He also outlines his own hermeneutical method (which he has dubbed "critical realism") and he goes on to discuss quantum cosmology, the anthropic principle, panentheism, dual aspect monism, and chaos theory.

Part II of the book, "Divine Agency," is perhaps the most creative section, where Polkinghorne addresses the notion of "kenotic creation" as the core of God's relationship to nature. The chapter is based on the author's 1995 Witherspoon Lecture at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton. Polkinghorne addresses concepts from classical Christian theology from Augustine onwards, and elucidates his own position clearly in the following chapter on "Natural Science, Temporality and Divine Action." On each aspect of the issue of God's purpose and providence, Polkinghorne approaches the key question from three distinct angles: metascience, metaphysics, and theology.

The final section of the book, Part II called "Significant Thinkers," consists of material reworked from two earlier pieces, the first a paper published in Zygon in 1999 and the second a lecture given in 1998 at a conference in Heidelberg. It also expands some of the material in his earlier book Scientists and Theologians where he examines the work of Wolfhart Pannenberg, Paul Davies and Thomas Torrance, all of whom continue to contribute substantively to the contemporary dialogue between science and theology. The final chapter reviews this interesting history, now spanning several centuries, in which Polkinghorne anchors his own body of work representing "bottom-up thinking."

This is a very manageable book. At 208 pages, it can easily serve as a group study guide. Polkinghorne achieves his purpose, which is to provide a summary of his "further thoughts" following his four substantial books in the 1990s. Fresh insights continue to enter the dialogue from all quarters, and Polkinghorne is one of the participants in the worldwide discussion who can distill the essence of a discussion with clarity and perspective.

Polkinghorne dedicated this book to the clergy and lay people of the Parish of the Good Shepherd at Cambridge where he is a resident fellow at Queen's College, and it can serve very well for advancing the enterprise of "faith seeking understanding" in parishes all over the world.

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Published   2002.10.24