released 8/6/2024
In a 2018 lecture at the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding, Kevin J. Vanhoozer discusses theologian T. F. Torrance’s understanding of the positive relation between science and theology. Torrance (1913–2007) argues that we come to know things not by purely rational means but by immersion into the reality of those things. For Torrance, knowing involves a synthesis of thinking, experiencing, and being — Vanhoozer refers to this as Torrance’s kataphysical poetics. He sees the essential unity of all reality, shunning dualistic thinking represented by figures such as Descartes, Kant, and Newton. Thinkers that Torrance viewed as apprehending the inherent relatedness of all reality are Karl Barth, Athanasius, John Philoponus, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Einstein. Science and theology need not be at odds if the universe is indeed an all-embracing unity held together in Christ. Vanhoozer’s lecture was titled “T. F. Torrance’s Kataphysical Poetics: How the Incarnation Relates Theological Science to Scientific Theology in the Doctrine of Creation, with Special Reference to General Relativity.”
This lecture is provided by the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding.
52 minutes
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