The Boundaries of Knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, and Science

201 Pages·2008·2.648 MB·English

by  Paul D. Numrich (ed.).

V&R
Paul D. Numrich (ed.)
The Boundaries of Knowledge
in Buddhism, Christianity,
and Science
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
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Table of Contents
Preface
Paul D. Numrich 7
Chapter 1
Reality and Knowledge
Paul D. Numrich 9
Chapter 2
Science and Buddhism: Two Complementary Modes of Knowledge
Trinh Xuan Thuan 22
Chapter 3
Buddhism and the Epistemic Discourses of Modernity
David L. McMahan 43
Chapter 4
Shinran and Heidegger on Truth
Dennis Hirota 59
Chapter 5
Buddhism, Christianity, and Physics: An Epistemological Turn
Mark T. Unno 80
Chapter 6
Constrained by Boundaries
PaulO. Ingram 105
Chapter 7
Mystery and God: Living within the Boundaries of Human
Knowledge
Gordon D. Kaufman 129
Chapter 8
"Knowing Too Much Is Knowing Too Little":
A Theological Appraisal of the Boundaries of Knowledge
Antje Jackelén 149
Chapter 9
The Oddest Word: Paradoxes of Theological Discourse
Tom Christenson 164
6 Table of Contents
Chapter 10
Limits of Scientific Knowledge
John R. Albright 184
Contributors 199
Preface
Several years ago I read an article in a respected popular magazine sum-
marizing contemporary science-religion dialogue. I recognized the Chris-
tian contours of the article and wondered, How might this article - and
contemporary science-religion dialogue - be different if Buddhist insights
were considered? This simple question led to a funded project, a public
conference, and the present collection of essays by a distinguished group of
scholars (see Numrich: this volume).
This volume brings together insights from religion (represented by Bud-
dhism and Christianity) and science to address the deepest questions about
reality and knowledge - not the usual offering in contemporary science-
religion dialogue. In the opening chapter, I ruminate on the boundaries
and limits of human knowledge, focusing especially on the inadequacies of
conceptualization and language in understanding reality, as recognized by
both science and religion. The other chapters move largely from Buddhism
to Christianity to science, although several incorporate insights from more
than one of these worldviews. Trinh Xuan Thuan (Chapter 2) discusses the
complementarity of the domains of knowledge in science and Buddhism.
David L. McMahan (Chapter 3) explores Buddhist discourses about sci-
ence in the modern period, while Dennis Hirota (Chapter 4) compares the
views of the medieval patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism, Shinran, and the
modern Western philosopher Martin Heidegger. Mark T. Unno (Chapter
5) and Paul O. Ingram (Chapter 6) range across the three worldviews,
while Gordon D. Kaufman (Chapter 7), Antje Jackelén (Chapter 8), and
Tom Christenson (Chapter 9) focus on Christian theological perspectives.
John R. Albright (Chapter 10) concludes the volume with a discussion of
scientific knowledge.
My deepest gratitude goes to the John Templeton Foundation for fund-
ing the project that eventuated in this volume. For their aid and encourage-
ment, the following individuals deserve special recognition: Paul K. Wason,
Director of Science and Religion Programs; Andrew Rick-Miller, Program
Officer; Patricia B. Franklin, Program Associate; and Patrick Brennan,
Grants Program Associate. Kimon Sargeant at the Met;anexus Institute first
encouraged me to propose this project to the Templeton Foundation, for
which I am very grateful.
The project's advisory group brought together four experts on Bud-
dhism, Christianity, and science: Roger Blomquist, Nuclear Engineer, Ar-
gonne National Laboratory; Thomas Kasulis, Professor of Japanese Re-
8 Preface
ligions and Asian and Western Philosophies, The Ohio State University;
Donald Luck, T. A. Kantonen Professor of Theology (Emeritus), Trinity
Lutheran Seminary; and George Murphy, adjunct faculty in Science-The-
ology Dialogue and Systematic Theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary In
addition to these formal advisors, Robert W. Numrich, Senior Research
Associate at the Supercomputing Institute for Digital Simulation and Ad-
vanced Computation, served as unofficial gadfly to the project. These indi-
viduals helpfully critiqued drafts of the chapters in this volume. As editor
I take responsibility for the volume's shortcomings, but I cannot take full
credit for its accomplishments - these stem from the remarkable insights
and collegiality of all involved.
Several individuals at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus
made this volume possible in a variety of ways. The deans of the Consor-
tium seminaries supported the larger project as they have all of my pro-
grammatic efforts: Don Huber of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, John Kampen
of Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and Michael Ross of Pontifical
College Josephinum. My student assistants, Brian Dickensheets (Methodist
Theological School) and Monica Pierce (Trinity Lutheran Seminary), per-
formed ably and greatly eased my load. The following administrators and
staff deserve grateful recognition for the services they provided the project:
from Methodist Theological School, Colleen Perry Keith, Executive Vice
President; Jere T. Schräder, Assistant Controller; and Diane Kensinger, Ac-
counting Services; from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Margaret L. Farnham,
Director of Communications; and Nona Jensen, Faculty Secretary. I must
not forget the students in my classes who showed interest in the project
even in contexts unrelated to the topic of contemporary science-religion
dialogue.
Two organizations helped to publicize the project: the Society for Bud-
dhist-Christian Studies and the Ohio Council of Churches. My special
thanks to Harry Wells and Rebecca Tollefson, respectively.
The fine people at Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht deserve much credit for
producing this volume, especially Tina Bruns, Editor, Theology and Reli-
gion.
As always, my wife Christine commands the most appreciation. We have
shared a long and winding road since East High School.
One technical aspect of the volume deserves brief comment. We do not
include diacritical marks in non-English words and names, with the excep-
tion of the German umlaut. Instead, we use the nearest equivalent letter for
the diacritic.
April 2008 PaulD. Numrich
Chapter 1
Reality and Knowledge
PaulD. Numrich1
1 The Biggest Questions
One of the textbooks I assigned in an introductory philosophy course
some years ago was entitled The Big Questions (Solomon: 41994). To my
mind, one of the biggest questions is, What is reality, or what is "real"? Phi-
losophy is not the only branch of human endeavor that weighs in on this
question. Science and religion also aspire to understand reality.
The present volume addresses the equally big (and related) question,
What can we know about reality or what is "real"? Thus, this volume has
an epistemological agenda in bringing together insights from religion (rep-
resented by Buddhism and Christianity) and science. Rather than offering
formulaic treatments about how religions might accommodate the latest
scientific discoveries or engaging in narrowly construed theoretical and
doctrinal discussions, this volume inquires into profound epistemological
issues that cut across these worldviews. How do Buddhism, Christianity,
and science explore the boundaries between the known and the unknown?
What do they define as unknowable? How do they participate in the hu-
man quest for knowledge about reality? This volume goes beyond the usual
fare in contemporary science-religion dialogue. Here science and religion
engage each other's attempts to understand reality.
The project that produced this volume did not begin with this in mind.
In 2005, the John Templeton Foundation awarded me a grant for a proj-
ect entitled Comparative Religious Perspectives on Science: Buddhism and
Christianity. My intention was to widen religious representation and chal-
lenge common assumptions in contemporary science-religion dialogue,
which has been dominated by Christianity on the religion side. For in-
stance, in his discussion of cosmology, Christian theologian and physicist
Robert John Russell (2000, 30) resolves the question of why anything ex-
ists, as opposed to nothing, by saying, "The answer is 'God'." In Creative
Tension: Essays on Science and Religion, cosmologist, Catholic priest, and
1 My thanks to George Murphy and Robert W. Numrich for their astute critiques of a draft
of this chapter. Neither is culpable for remaining shortcomings.