Contents

PART FOUR: THEORY

12. THE LEGITIMACY OF THEORY WITHIN A SCIENTIFIC
THEOLOGY -- pg.3

13. THE PRESENTATION OF REALITY IN A SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY -- pg.77

14. THE PLACE OF EXPLANATION IN A SPECIFIC THEOLOGY -- pg.133

15. THE PLACE OF METAPHYSICS IN A SCIENTIFIC
THEOLOGY -- pg.237

CONCLUSION: ANTICIPATING A SCIENTIFIC DOGMATICS -- pg.295

BIBLIOGRAPHY -- pg.299

INDEX -- pg.337

A Scientific Theology is a groundbreaking work of systematic theology in three volumes: Nature, Reality, and Theory.
Written by Alister McGrath, one of the world’s best-known theologians, these volumes present the most extended and systematic exploration of the relation between Christian theology and the natural sciences ever undertaken. Thoroughly ecumenical in approach, A Scientific Theology is a significant work for Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant readers. Each volume is marked throughout by a sustained critical engagement with the history and philosophy of the natural sciences and by a passionate commitment to the legitimacy of theology as an academic discipline.
Volume 3 provides a fresh evaluation of the origins and place of theory in Christian theology. Dealing with the question of how reality is represented in Christian theology and the natural sciences, theory is understood as a response to experienced reality, a "communal beholding of reality.” Against those who might favor a "non-dogmatic" Christianity, McGrath argues that the Christian community is under an intellectual obligation to give an account of what it corporately "beholds." The many theoretical issues addressed in this volume include the manner in which closure is secured in theological theorizing, the problem of reductionism in theoretical analysis, the explanatory dimensions of theology, the implications of the stratification of reality for its representation, the place of metaphysics in Christian theology, and the nature of revelation itself.