Research Catalog

Title

Theology in the age of scientific reasoning / Nancey Murphy.

Author

Murphy, Nancey C.

Publication

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, c1990.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 215 p. : charts; 24 cm.

Summary

In this timely and provocative book, Nancey Murphy sets out to dispel skepticism regarding Christian belief. She argues for the rationality of Christian belief by showing that theological reasoning is similar to scientific reasoning as described by contemporary philosophy of science. Murphy draws on new historicist accounts of science, particularly that of Imre Lakatos. According to Lakatos, scientists work within a "research program" consisting of a fixed core theory and a series of changing auxiliary hypotheses that allow for prediction and explanation of novel facts. Murphy argues that strikingly similar patterns of reasoning can be used to justify theological assertions. She shows that theological research programs such as those of Wolfhart Pannenberg and of the Roman Catholic Modernists already come close to satisfying the demands of Lakatos's methodology. Murphy provides an original characterization of theological data and explores the consequences for theology and philosophy or religion of adopting such an approach.

Series Statement

Cornell studies in the philosophy of religion

Uniform Title

Cornell studies in the philosophy of religion

Subject

• Geschichte 1650-1980
• Theology > Methodology
• Religion and science > 1946-
• Religion and Science

Genre/Form

History

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The problem : theological method in the age of probable reasoning -- The quest for theological method : Pannenberg versus Hume -- Probable reasoning come of age : philosophy of science -- The modernists : testing the method -- Data for theology -- Scientific theology.

ISBN

0801424003 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^89039375^

OCLC

• 20294283
• SCSB-10867952

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library