Human Significance in Theology and the Natural Sciences

An Ecumenical Perspective with Reference to Pannenberg, Rahner, and Zizioulas

Christopher L. Fisher

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781606080535
  9781498252546
• eBook ISBN:
  9781621892311
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The medieval worldview that regarded human beings as at the center of God's plans for His universe has long been regarded as obsolete; its synthesis of Christian theology and Greek philosophy having collapsed under the weight of Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin. The popular stereotype is that Science, both in the Copernican revolution that dethroned the earth-centered view of the cosmos and in subsequent developments in evolutionary theory and general relativity, has marginalized and trivialized human existence, revealing humanity's "place in the cosmos" to be accidental, peripheral, and ultimately meaningless. However, an investigation into both modern Christian theology and contemporary twenty-first century Science reveals just the opposite, providing solid evidence in the interdisciplinary dialogue concerning the significance of humanity within the universe. In this important study, Christopher Fisher analyzes several modern theologians, including Wolfhart Pannenberg, Karl Rahner, and John Zizioulas, to reveal how contemporary ecumenical theology is deeply and intrinsically committed to a high view of human cosmic significance as a consequence of Christianity's indelible Trinitarian and incarnational faith. Fisher then demonstrates how research in contemporary natural Science confirms this finding in its own way, as recent primate intelligence studies, artificial intelligence research, and even the quest for extra-terrestrial intelligence reveal the wonder of human uniqueness. A contemporary version of the teleological argument also resurfaces in consideration of cosmic evolutionary perspectives on human existence. Even ecological concerns take on a new poignancy with the realization that, among material creatures, only human beings are capable of addressing the world's situation. This interdisciplinary study uncovers the surprising coherence and convergence of Christian Theology and Natural Science on the subject of human existence and significance here at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and it highlights the very unique role of humanity in global and cosmic history.

1

Wolfhart Pannenberg

The Human Divine Representative

It is when we look at Jesus Christ that we know decisively that God’s deity does not exclude, but includes His humanity . . . [In Jesus Christ] the fact is once for all established that God does not exist without man.

—Karl Barth1

Introduction to Pannenberg’s Thought

Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928–) is one of the preeminent German Lutheran theologians of the twentieth century. He is now retired, though continuing to write and engage with contemporary issues. A brief introduction to his thought will serve to illuminate his specific approach to the anthropological theme. After analyzing his theology for its support of the thesis of critical anthropocentrism, a critique of aspects that might endanger the thesis will be undertaken.

Pannenberg’s basic position is that all truth is one. All components of truth, whether theological, historical, philosophical, or scientific, must ultimately be coherent with each other, or else they are rendered self-negating. These components must also correspond to reality—they must be shown to be valid in the actual world. Thus coherence and correspondence to reality are Pannenberg’s tests of truth.2 He believes the truth of all reality comes from God, and that this truth is testable. Theological truth in particular is testable using the method of historical research, rather than the scientific method of theory, experiment, and observation. Because of its testability, he believes the Christian understanding of truth can show itself to be true in the context of modern thought.3 He insists that theology must be able to listen to and synthesize the insights gained by the secular sciences in nature, history, and life; truth from those realms must ultimately be coherent with theological truth. Christian theology must have a “sound claim to universal validity”—that is, be true for everyone, everywhere—if it is to be credible at all.4 In keeping with such universal claims, Pannenberg maintains that the idea of God, if true, must provide the “unity of all reality.”5 Human truth claims are provisional, and subject to revision short of their ultimate confirmation at the end of time, so that an open and critical approach is essential.

According to Pannenberg, history is the main medium of God’s revelation to humanity. The truths of Christian faith are in the historical events of God’s interaction with the world, particularly in Israel, and focused and consummated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the final revelation of God, and the center of Pannenberg’s theology. He contends that the history of Jesus has to be real history, “not in its details, but in its core,” if Christian faith is to be regarded as valid.6 The core event of that history is the resurrection, which verifies him as God’s final revelation.7 It is Christianity’s central truth. It is so important that it even establishes for humanity the reality of God the Father:

[It is as] constitutive for the Godhead of the Father, as it is for the divine Sonship of Jesus. Without Jesus being raised from the dead, the one whom Jesus announced as his father would not be God.8

Only in light of Jesus’ actual resurrection are his divinity verified and the christological doctrines of the incarnation and God’s fulfilled revelation in him disclosed and made credible.9

Since history is the domain of God’s self-revelation to humanity, Pannenberg proposes that the events of history recorded in Scripture cannot be regarded simply as stories about spiritual or moral truths whose facticity is secondary. They must be seen as intending to capture the real historical events of God’s actions to and for the cosmos, the world, and humanity in the creation, the history of Israel, and especially the history of Jesus of Nazareth.10 The remembrance of these may have been passed on in a flawed manner, subject to historical and critical investigation, but the record nevertheless points to real history. Pannenberg maintains that divine revelation is historically testable, in sharp contrast to “fideistic” theologians such as Barth, Brunner, or Bultmann. In the previous generation, these had posited a kind of salvation history that is accessible only through faith, either separate from or unrelated to the secular history accessible to all.11 Pannenberg insists that revelation history is real history, universally accessible and testable using the critical methods of the historian. Hence, historical-critical study of Scripture is vital to discovering the real events of revelation that took place in the human history they record or attempt to remember; those human events were the revelation.12

The resurrection is verified by “the historical evidence yielded by a rigorously critical use of the documents,” and could only be dismissed by someone who has decided on a priori grounds that a resurrection is inherently impossible.13 This event has validity in both the real world of facts—the supposedly hard “what” of the scientist—and what has sometimes been characterized as the “subjective” world of faith. It destroys the separating prejudice that has mistakenly isolated the theologian in the soft realm of values, beliefs, and interpretation, and provides the objective grounds for Christian faith. In support of his position, Pannenberg sites what he believes are the evidences and proofs for the resurrection that stand up to rigorous historical-critical scrutiny. The witnesses of the event, recorded by the Gospels and listed by Paul in
1 Corinthians 15:3–8, provide the weightiest testimony. The empty tomb is another evidence, although less weighty than the eyewitnesses. The post-resurrection appearances of the risen Lord and the change in the disciple’s character from a depressed state following the crucifixion to a confident and joyful state after seeing the risen Lord, are otherwise inexplicable. Since it is difficult to categorize the resurrection using ordinary language because it belongs to the new creation, Pannenberg describes it with metaphorical or spiritual language. He does not mean by this that the event is untrue, ghostly, or simply a matter of faith. Neither vision, nor physical body, nor any other this-worldly description is adequate to capture its meaning, because words are insufficient to describe this cosmically crucial yet next-worldly event.14

Pannenberg maintains that fact and interpretation are inseparable, and believes the proper interpretation of historical events is objectively available to all, given sufficient information and research into events. The resurrection’s occurrence within the apocalyptic milieu of inter-testamental Judaism thus forms part of its interpretation. With the resurrection, the special character of God’s revelation in Israel and finally in Jesus is revealed and verified. It is contained in the historical events themselves, “not in the attitude or inspiration with which one confronts them.”15 Revelation as history is therefore a key motif for Pannenberg. Jesus of Nazareth is revealed by the resurrection as the incarnate Word of God active in history, the ultimate historical revelation of God. The resurrection is an actual event in history, subject to investigation like any other historical event. There are enough witnesses and evidences to support its facticity that, though doubt is possible, Pannenberg believes we are rationally justified in accepting its truthfulness, and therefore also justified in putting our faith in the risen Lord Jesus. This is the heart of his theology.16 He desires to reintroduce critical rationalism into theological thinking, to replace what he perceives as the irrational su...

Table of contents

• Title
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Wolfhart Pannenberg
• Part 1: Human Significance in Theology
• Part 2: Human Significance in the Natural Sciences
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Author Index