Abstract
Balázs Mezei, in an essay entitled Demythologizing Christian philosophy: an outline, criticizes the position he describes as “cosmotheology”. By this he means a philosophical refl ection on the world that is strongly conditioned by the pre-Copernican conception of the universe. In his opinion, the only solution to the problem of “cosmotheology” is to “demythologize” philosophy, freeing it from all cosmological conditions, which constitute only an unnecessary burden. Michał Heller presents a diff erent attitude. He argues that theology – that is, rational refl ection on Christian revelation – must take into account what in many publications he calls “the current image of the world.” Science is supposed to be a specific locus theologicus: a source of refl ection and theological argumentation. A theologian cannot turn his back on such important issues for modern science as the Big Bang theory, the eternity and infinity of the universe, fine tuning of the initial conditions of the universe. These data from the natural sciences can not only inspire but also point to new ways of understanding classical theological theories. It is the concept of “inspiration” that seems to be central to the approach that we have defined as “the new theo (cosmology)”. On a few selected examples we want to show how, on the basis of the latest cosmological data, Heller shapes the “new theology”, creatively refl ecting on questions about the creation of the world, its eternity, and Providence caringly supporting the existence of the universe.
Highlights
The term fine tuning involves associations with precise tuning of musical instruments or a radio receiver. It is applicable in natural sciences: it has been found that some constants in the natural world are very finely “tuned” so that the world in which we live can exist. In her cross-sectional paper on cosmological anthropic principles, Sherrilyn Roush poses a question of the degree of this fine tuning
While physico-theology treated science only as an authority saying yes to revealed truths, the new approach sets out to look to scientia for inspiration enabling reconsideration and better expression of some theological theses
The working phrase – “new theo(cosmo)logy” – that we have suggested is a direct reference to one of Heller’s statement-making books entitled Nowa fizyka i nowa teologia, where the author writes the following: “The term «new theology» has been in circulation for some time too
Summary
For several dozen years the term “god of the gaps” has been tremendously popular. It is critical in character: God treated as a hypothesis explicating the existing gaps and limitations in current scientific understanding.[1]. Which more often than not Christian philosophy “uncritically received.”[13] This fact makes Balázs Mezei announce the necessity to “demythologise” theological and philosophical language, which is to be understood as a critical history analysis performed with a view to cleansing these disciplines of the unnecessary (in Mezei’s opinion) baggage of the ancient and medieval vision of the world His text does not contain any information about the way this demythologised religion is supposed to refer to the current image of the world, which after all somehow affects understanding of the Christian message as well.
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