Incarnation and Physics: Natural Science in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance

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Oxford University Press, 15. aug 2002 - 240 pages
Thomas F. Torrance is the most prominent theologian to have taken seriously the challenge posed to theology by the natural sciences. His model for interaction between the two disciplines is based on the theological heart of the Church: the Incarnation. Luoma here offers a thorough overview and critique of Torrance's insights into the theology-science dialogue.

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Contents

Introduction
3
Torrances Thought in Outline
14
The Idea of Compulsion
61
Conclusion
141
Copyright

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Page 189 - These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed ; and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.
Page 201 - The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of 'physical reality" indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to...
Page 96 - And these things being rightly dispatch'd, does it not appear from Phaenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite Space, as it were in his Sensory, sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly by their immediate presence to himself...
Page 189 - Praedestinationem vocamus aeternum Dei decretum, quo apud se constitutum habuit, quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet. Non enim pari conditione creantur omnes : sed aliis vita aeterna, aliis damnatio aeterna praeordinatur.
Page 32 - The real purpose of myth is not to present an objective picture of the world as it is, but to express man's understanding of himself in the world in which he lives.
Page 67 - ... in the experiments about atomic events we have to do with things and facts, with phenomena that are just as real as any phenomena in daily life. But the atoms or the elementary particles are not as real ; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts'.
Page 95 - And from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being; and, from his other perfections, that he is supreme or most perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things and knows all things that are or can be done.
Page 201 - This again emphasizes a subjective element in the description of atomic events, since the measuring device has been constructed by the observer, and we have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Page 67 - In the experiments about atomic events we have to do with things and facts, with phenomena that are just as real as any phenomena in daily life. But the atoms or the elementary particles themselves are not as real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.

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