Conclusion
In 1930, the novelist Evelyn Waugh, best known for his novel Brideshead Revisited, converted to Christianity. Waugh later wrote to a friend describing how he had found that his new faith allowed him to see things clearly for the first time: ‘Conversion is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made; and then begins the delicious process of exploring it limitlessly.’1
This book has offered what is frankly a rather limited exploration of one of the most interesting aspects of the rich and complex landscape of the Christian faith: the relation of the natural sciences and theology. I have done little more than scratch the surface of some of the most interesting and important questions under discussion today. But I hope I have traced pathways and pointed to resources that will allow readers to take things further for themselves, both continuing these reflections and weaving together the narratives of science and faith into a coherent and satisfying whole.
I have attempted to interlace science and theology to help us glimpse a richer vision of reality – not of course in the simplistic and long-discredited sense of forcing them into the same preconceived mould but rather in the more complicated one of paying a respectful attentiveness to their distinct approaches and being willing to allow them to complement one another. It’s not a new idea. After all, this was one of the driving forces behind the Renaissance, that remarkable period in Western culture that tried to achieve a synthesis – or at least a working agreement – between the great forces that then shaped and nourished human culture.
Some argue that such a conversation between Christian theology and the natural sciences is a pragmatic necessity. Science and religion are so important that they can’t afford not to talk to each other. The leading sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson (born 1929) argued along these lines in confronting the threat of environmental degradation and disaster: ‘Science and religion are two of the most potent forces on Earth and they should come together to save the creation.’2 While Wilson does not believe that science and religion can be reconciled, he nevertheless argues that they can work together in pursuing significant shared goals – above all the challenges to the future of the human race and planet Earth.
Although critical of religion, particularly its reluctance to come to terms with empiricism and its association with tribalism,3 Wilson calls out for consilience – the ability to weave together multiple threads of knowledge in a synthesis that is able to disclose a more satisfying and empowering view of reality.
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.4
We need all the wisdom we possess to cope with the challenges of the moment. Yet while Wilson sees a conversation between science and theology as a pragmatic necessity, I see it as a welcome opportunity to enrich our vision of reality, driven by a realization of the greater picture of reality it makes possible.
Yet in the end we need to do more than achieve a personally satisfying integration of science and faith. Western culture is still enthralled by the long-discredited myth of the perpetual ‘warfare’ of science and religion. The most effective means of challenging this outdated ideology is not to refute it historically or argumentatively but to demonstrate that they can be brought together and held together with integrity by active research scientists. While I have written this book primarily to encourage individuals to assimilate this richer vision of reality, the greater challenge is to allow it to capture the imagination of our culture. While there is much that scientifically informed theologians can do to make this happen, the best people who can do this are theologically informed scientists. They are both the envisaged readership and the intended outcome of this book.