Ted Peters

Science and Theology:

Warfare or Peaceful Cooperation?

Thurs, Feb 25, 2021, 8:30 PM

Chairperson: Dr Fabian Jose UMI

Watch Live here

Dr. Ted Peters (Ph.D., University of Chicago) teaches systematic theology and ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, USA. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. He is author of God--The World's Future (Fortress, 3rd ed., 2015); and he recently edited a new volume on artificial intelligence, AI and IA: Utopia or Extinction? (ATF 2018) He is author of a fiction thriller with a Transhumanist plot, Cyrus Twelve, with Aprocryphile Press [http://tedstimelytake.com/series/leona-foxx-thriller/].

Visit his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

Science and Theology: Warfare or Peaceful Cooperation?

Public discourse today continues to propagate the simplistic idea that science and religion are engaged in a hopelessly unwinnable war. This is misleading. Science and religion interact at so many different junctures and in so many different ways that any simple generalization misguides us. This presentation provides an updated inventory of ten popular conceptual models for relating science and theology, when theology is understood as rational reflection on religion. Four influential models assume that a war is taking place:

  1. scientism;

  2. scientific imperialism;

  3. theological authoritarianism; and

  4. the evolution controversy.

Six additional preferred models assume a truce or even more, a partnership: (5) the Two Books; (6) the Two Languages; (7) ethical alliance; (8) dialogue accompanied by creative mutual interaction; (9) naturalism; and (10) theology of nature.


Special attention will be given to creative mutual interaction within a framework of a theology of nature.