Knowing the Word and the World?

H. Frederick Reisz Jr.

Article Type: Article

Publication Date: 7/1/1993

Issue: Faith, Science, Technology (Vol. 13, No 3, Summer, 1993)

The matter with matter is that it does matter. In all sorts of social, political, and ethical ways, how we think about our “talk” and how it relates to “reality” matters. In our vast and contentious pluralism, what we think we know about what we say is a matter of social significance and existential importance. In the dialogue between scientists, theologians, and other people of faith, it is important to recognize that there are differing convictions about the relationship between our theories and/or models and what we know, think, believe, and/or construe about the “actual” world. Equally, similar perspectives exist about how we know, think, believe, and/or construe the word. Are the philosophy of science and various modern schools of theology riding parallel rails? I think so. Will they meet at some point in infinite and curved space? Only God “knows." This essay characterizes five general approaches to the relationship between expression and what is being expressed as “actuality” or “possibility” in science and theology.

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