Ernan McMullin’s thought on science and theology: an appreciation
Publication date
2015ISSN
2300-6579
Abstract
The thought of Ernan McMullin on the relationship between science and theology can be summarized with a word that he himself used: consonance. We briefly describe this epistemological proposal, and we show a concrete instance of its application by way of a short analysis of one of McMullin’s interdisciplinary works, “Cosmic Purpose and the Contingency of Human Evolution.” With the help of the authoritative comment that William Stoeger has made on this paper, we sketch McMullin’s effort to find a consonance between two different claims: the theological one – humans expected – and the evolutionary one – humans unexpected. In this case, consonance is reached by recurring to the classic Augustinian notion of the atemporality of God. We then show how McMullin’s way of interpreting consonance affects the question of the viability of a natural theology in a scientifically informed era. In fact, his distrust of various kinds of natural theology is another crucial aspect of his epistemological framework for interdisciplinary dialogue.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
1 - Philosophy. Psychology
2 - Religion. Theology
Keywords
McMullin, Ernan, 1924-
Teologia natural
Natural theology
Teología natural
Contingència (Filosofia)
Contingency (Philosophy)
Contingencia (Filosofía)
Pages
12
Publisher
De Gruyter Open
Collection
1;
Is part of
Open Theology
Citation
Barzaghi, Amerigo; Corcó Juviñá, Josep. «Ernan McMullin’s thought on science and theology: an appreciation». Open Theology, 2015, vol. 1, p. 512-523. Disponible en: <https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opth.2014.1.issue-1/opth-2015-0032/opth-2015-0032.xml>. Fecha de acceso: 13 nov. 2019. DOI: 10.1515/opth-2015-0032
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Humanitats [135]
Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/