Toward a Theological Theory of Everything

Abstract

AbstractThe emergence of a new scientific world-picture during the course of the 20thcentury has created the challenge to theology, as in the time of Aquinas, to act as the great integrating discipline, drawing upon the full range of knowledge to formulate a grand narrative of the evolving cosmos. First, key questions of the science-theology debate of the past three decades are outlined, with emphasis on the epistemic aspects. George Ellis's theistic cosmology is then presented briefly, as an example of a limited integration that brings together the realms of the physical and the moral. Using the same hypothetico-deductive approach, an axiomatic framework is proposed as a way of extending his model into a more comprehensive scheme - one that is based on a fundamental idea of trinitarian theology, the kenosis of God. This is then linked to the traditional triad of transcendental values - truth, goodness and beauty - with reference on the one hand to the neglect of beauty in modern culture, and on the other hand to the role of the Holy Spirit as the One who affirms particularity and inspires beauty.