September Issue of The Worldview Bulletin-Pt. 1

The Savior of Science | Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation

Fall greetings from The Worldview Bulletin! In this issue, Paul Copan surveys the historian and philosopher of science Stanley Jaki’s book The Savior of Science, summarizing Jaki’s case for the centrality of Christianity in the development and practice of science. Paul Gould discusses Dallas Willard’s three stages of spiritual formation in the context of the local congregation, concluding that “we want to hear the music of the gospel in our lives and we want the dance steps to be a natural outflowing, or overflowing, of that grace.” David Baggett continues his series examining Bart Campolo’s deconversion—in particular, the role played by Campolo’s view of hell. Melissa Cain Travis suggests that naturalists are whistling in the dark when it comes to purpose and meaning in life on a naturalistic worldview. And, finally, we conclude with news and resources of note, and great deals on good books.

For the King,

Christopher Reese

Editor-in-Chief

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Contents

Part One

1. Taking a Look at Stanley Jaki’s The Savior of Science

   by Paul Copan

2. Dallas Willard on God’s Plan for Spiritual Formation

   by Paul M. Gould

Please see the second email for Part Two of the newsletter.

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Taking a Look at Stanley Jaki’s The Savior of Science

By Paul Copan

Stanley Jaki (1924-2009) was a Hungarian-born Benedictine priest, theologian, scientist (physicist), and Gifford lecturer, whose work helped me a good deal shortly after completing my studies at Trinity Seminary. His book helped me to see more clearly the impact of the Christian faith on the rise of modern science. Here I wanted to share some of his insights from his book The Savior of Science.[1]

By 1879, Charles Darwin had already come to disbelieve in the supernatural. He would ask his son to pen a letter for him. He wrote: “Science has nothing to do with Christ,” adding that, for himself, “I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation.”

Jaki’s book stands out in strong opposition to such an assertion. Jaki maintains that a “close look at the ‘unscientific facts of the history of science . . . must have in its focus the fact of Christ if that fact is indeed the most significant fact in history” (p. 8). Although Jaki is realistic that his thesis—Christ is the Savior and Creator of science—will not be readily embraced by scientists entrenched in naturalism, he asserts that Christ is able to redeem humans from the forces of darkness, whether intellectual or moral, and to prevent science from being the source of one colossal tragedy after another.

In his first chapter (“The Stillbirths of Science”), Jaki presents the reasons certain ancient civilizations failed to produce science.  In fact, one of the tragedies of modern science is its unwillingness to “look into the more distant scientific past and ask some searching questions” about its fate and fortunes (p. 22).  Despite Egypt’s technical prowess in building pyramids, Egyptian mathematics and geometry remained a practical art.  Any possibility for scientific breakthroughs was destroyed by the Egyptian belief that humans were part of a wholly animate universe (as is evidenced by Egyptian art that combined human and animal bodies).  The Hindus suffered a similar fate by likewise adopting an animistic view of totality as well as by fatalistically believing in the eternal karmic treadmill. And despite China’s inventing gunpowder and printing, its quasi-pantheistic identification of humans and society with Nature preempted scientific development.  Furthermore, Islamic civilization’s becoming entrenched in superstition had a similarly deadening effect.

In chapter two (“The Birth That Saved Science”), Jaki defends the thesis that the hope of any scientific enterprise stems from the significance of Christ:

The alertness within a genuine Christian milieu to the danger of toying with pantheism served the proper understanding of the universe in a measure still not sufficiently esteemed by historians of science.  It was, historically speaking, the first manifestation of the saving grace which the Christian doctrine of salvation in and through Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the Living God, provided for science (p. 74).

Jaki probes beyond the effects of theism on Newton to his predecessors Buridan and Oresme, who anticipated Newtonian physics and who had a significant impact on the advancement of scientific discussion.  Buridan assumed the finitude of the world because God created it ex nihilo.  He maintained that God himself sustained the universe.  The world was not an emanation or offspring (“begotten”) of God as the Greeks and Romans believed.  Rather, the exalted “only begotten” (unique) Son put the universe in its rightful place.

Jaki then elaborates in chapter three (“Universe and Salvation”) that the universe is rational.  Copernicus and Galileo expressed full confidence in its rationality, which was necessary for science.  But belief in the universe’s rationality could also have its pitfalls.  Some atheistic scientists (like Halley) sought refuge from God in a self-explanatory universe that was infinite.  Others like Fred Hoyle espoused the problematic steady-state model of the universe, for which there was not even a shred of evidence.  Another metaphysical escape-hatch popular today is the speculative World Ensemble hypothesis, which posits a plurality of universes, in some of which intelligent life might possibly emerge.  Jaki counters this view:  “Those universes either interact or they do not.  In the former case they constitute one universe.  In the latter case, they are mutually unknowable and therefore certainly irrelevant for science” (p. 110).

In chapter four (“The Saving of Purpose”), Jaki discusses some of the problems of materialistic Darwinism:  How can the development of the eye be coherently explained by evolution?  Why should evolution produce a peacock, whose feathers are for ostentatious display rather than for survival?  T. H. Huxley correctly acknowledged that materialistic Darwinism is not “scientific.” Rather, it is a metaphysical vision:  under the hat of unrepentant Darwinism is “a rigid ideology that accepts evolution only in a form which . . . excludes God and soul and leaves on with blind matter” (p. 139).

Addressing the potentially pernicious impact of science, Jaki begins the fifth chapter (“The All-Saving Love”) with an apt quotation of Rabelais:  “Science without conscience is but the soul’s decadence.”  Einstein himself realized how the scientific enterprise could be twisted:  “It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man” (p. 194).  The atomic bomb, genetic engineering, environmental exploitation, and sociological manipulation demonstrate how the sophistication of science brings a negative effect on “man’s ability to see the wholeness of things” (p. 166).  Jaki sees hope in “the survival value of the Fact of Christ,” who can have a “saving impact on science” (p. 191).  Not only does the influence of Christ bring to bear upon science the perspective of creation out of nothing, a fully ordered universe, and cosmic purpose; it also enables scientists to overcome the effects of original sin and brings service to humanity, moral scrupulousness, intellectual honesty into science as well.  But to believe that science is the savior is “a tragic absurdity” (p. 195).

In his final chapter (“The Creator in the Dock”), Jaki summarizes some of the themes of his book.  He specifies strategic questions for theists to ask naturalistic evolutionists (such as their making science into a religion or ideology), but also gives advice to “creation scientists,” who make a “strategic error” by becoming overly preoccupied with the how of creation or by limiting the age of the earth to a few thousand years and the special creation of each and every species within “that fleetingly short time-span,” which is a “sad and ridiculous spectacle indeed” (p. 203).  Theists, rather, should defend the simple doctrine that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Jaki’s book is an inspiration for the follower of Christ, whose birth has not only theological, but scientific, implications as well.  For the non-theistic scientist, the book serves both as a reminder of the debt modern science owes to the Christian worldview and as a warning to a scientific enterprise that is either ideologically driven or ethically relative.

Notes

[1] Stanley L. Jaki, The Savior of Science (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1988). 

— Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Learn more about Paul and his work at paulcopan.com.

Image by Kanenori from Pixabay

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Dallas Willard on God’s Plan for Spiritual Formation

By Paul M. Gould

This past summer I did a deep dive into Dallas Willard’s wonderful book on spiritual formation called Renovation of the Heart. Along the way, I’ve been writing here in the Worldview Bulletin about various parts of Willard’s project that I’ve found helpful. In this last installment on The Renovation of the Heart, I want to summarize and comment on Willard’s discussion of God’s plan for our spiritual formation.