God and Natural Order Physics, Philosophy, and Theology Routledge Studies in Religion Series

In God and Natural Order: Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, Shaun Henson brings a theological approach to bear on contemporary scientific and philosophical debates on the ordered or disordered nature of the universe. Henson engages arguments for a unified theory of the laws of nature, a concept with monotheistic metaphysical and theological leanings, alongside the pluralistic viewpoints set out by Nancy Cartwright and other philosophers of science, who contend that the nature of physical reality is intrinsically complex and irreducible to a single unifying theory. Drawing on the work of theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and his conception of the Trinitarian Christian god, the author argues that a theological line of inquiry can provide a useful framework for examining controversies in physics and the philosophy of science. God and Natural Order will raise provocative questions for theologians, Pannenberg scholars, and researchers working in the intersection of science and religion.

Introduction 1. God as Unifier: Scientific Unification and its Theological Alliances 2. God as Pluralist: Philosophical Challenges to Scientific Unification 3. Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Trinitarian Creation 4. Material Limits 5. Methodological Limits 6. Conclusions

Shaun C. Henson teaches in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, UK