221 - The Humble Approach

The Humble Approach
By John M. Templeton
New York, Seabury, 1981. 248 pp. $10.95.

This work offers some interesting comparisons with Francis Bacon. Neither the author nor Bacon is a professional theologian or scientist, yet both are intensely interested in religion and science and their correlations. Both call for the humble approach. As Bacon was convinced that one must" become as a little child to enter into the kingdom of scientia", so for him, humility before God and nature is the sine qua non of understanding either. As Bacon said, "Truth lieth hid in certain deep minds and caves", so the author says, "Gaining knowledge is like working in a quarry". As Bacon moves away from the dogmatism and the deductive logic and authority of Aristotle towards experiment in science, so he argues that religion must move away from false dogmatism deduced from authority and into a process of discovery and testing. As Bacon was convinced that every human being had opportunity to be

222 - The Humble Approach

of service to God in the kingdom of God (regnum dei) and to be of service to one's fellow human beings in the kingdom of man (regnum hominis) by way of science (scientia), he is certain that to be of service in whatever capacity is to enter the kingdom of God here and now.

Like Bacon, Templeton is an optimist in outlook and a Calvinist in attitude. But in contrast to Bacon's pecuniary difficulty, the author is singularly successful in financial matters and is an ardent apostle of the capitalistic system characterized by individual freedom, personal initiative, and free competition. Thus while it is good for the soul to promote eleemosynary efforts such as mission work and while short - term help to the needy is often necessary, long - term welfare is debilitating to its recipients because it robs them of dignity and takes away impetus for self - development. The kind of economic aid which should be offered the poor populations of the world should promote education and industry so the people are encouraged to move toward self - sufficiency and self determination. Likewise, he is critical of communism, which arose and spread on "its youthful promise to sweep away the stifling pattern of older societies" but now, along with socialism, has become restrictive and coercive.

Basing his concept of cosmic evolution on Teilhard de Chardin, he summons theologians and scientists to cooperate in a process which leads toward higher levels of existence. Participation calls for "the humble approach" which has much in common with but is not the same as natural, process, or empirical theologies. It necessitates following the laws of the Spirit, including positive thinking, generosity, forgiveness, love, and, surrender to God. The results are to be judged according to the love and happiness which the process brings about.

There is no doubting his earnestness in attempting to promote the kind of a world in which both science and religion have vital and complementary parts to play. However, besides his perhaps too optimistic evaluation of laissez faire economics, the book raises four rather important theological and epistemological questions. The first is the concept of progressive cosmic evolution, based upon a creatio continua wherein the line between creatio and providentia tends to disappear. The second involves the tendency to equate the mysteries of the universe with God. This can easily be interpreted as the kind of Greek deus sive natura conceptuality which, in its Aristotelian form, the West had to get rid of before modern science could develop. Thirdly, there is the evaluation of science as a non - dogmatic enterprise. It is true that Einsteinian and post - Einsteinian scientists essentially have given up any concept of self - sufficiency of their disciplines. Nevertheless, as Thomas Kuhn has shown, scientific systems are necessarily dogmatic. Were all ideas treated with equal seriousness, science would become an inert morass of non - differentiable propositions. As is, the promoters of a good theory must fight to have it taken seriously. To use one of the author's favorite concepts, new theories compete with accepted dogmas and science remains valid and progresses insofar as the fittest survive.

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A fourth possible concern is the somewhat eclectic view of religion which Templeton, like Toynbee in his 1952 - 53 Gifford Lectures, recommends. Contrary to the science of nature where probing allows us to uncover more and more about the world, theological science may have to do with concepts that are relatively stable and universal but which may need re - understanding and re - phrasing to be relevant to today's contexts. Certainly this will mean testing our dogmas and listening to our faiths. However, as there is no neutral ground from which faith can be judged, epistemology would seem to demand that all theological notions whether from one's own tradition, another faith, or a thought nouveau will have to be translated into the structures of one's own faith - conceptuality for apprehension, understanding, and appreciation. His example of the universal applicability of faith, hope, love, charity, and "laws of the spirit", all of which have a biblical base, would seem to illustrate the matter.

As T. F. Torrance has noted on the dust jacket of the book, it is a ,"very exciting event" when so successful a businessman as the author writes this kind of a book. I would hope many other business people but also scientists, theologians, church members, and others would read and take seriously his plea for the relevance of faith and science to the whole of life. As an inducement, I might point out that the 135 - page bibliography, with some 1,800 entries covering the whole gamut of available literature on religion and science, is alone well worth the price of the book.

Harold P. Nebelsick
Center of Theological Inquiry
Princeton, New Jersey