Marcel Sarot

Theology and science pose different questions about the same reality. Science is concerned with the factual nature of the physical world around us, whereas theology is concerned with its meaning. This means that theology is in some respects dependent upon science: science provides theology with information about the factual nature of the reality of which theology has to make sense. How this factual information affects theology is shown for the example of divine omniscience. It is argued that (1) the temporal nature of the world in which we live requires an omniscient God to be temporal as well; (2) the real openness of the future makes it in principle impossible even for a perfect knower to know all its details; (3) the factual nature of some experiences makes it impossible for anyone who has not had similar experiences himself to have perfect knowledge of them. It is concluded from this example that it should be one of the main aims of th dialogue between theology and science to find out in which respects our scientific knowledge of physical reality should lead to a revision of theological doctrines

Bij alle aandacht die er op dit moment is voor de aard van zingevingsvragen is de analogie tussen de betekenis van taal enerzijds en leven en werkelijkheid anderzijds wel opgemerkt, maar nog nergens uitvoerig doorgelicht. Marcel Sarot voorziet in dit gemis door een zorgvuldige analyse van de structurele overeenkomsten tussen verschillende theorieën over beide vormen van betekenis. Vervolgens past hij de gemaakte onderscheidingen toe in een weerlegging van de argumenten tegen de theïstische vorm van zingeving van Elmar D. Klemke en Jaap van Heerden.

In this article, I apply the theory of tradition Karl Popper developed in an article on the rationalist tradition to Christianity. Popper helps us to distinguish between four functions of the Christian tradition. The Christian tradition helps people to order their perceptions by suggesting distinctions between what is important and what is less important. The Christian tradition provides people with guidelines for their behaviour. The Christian tradition provides a framework that helps us to understand the past of our own culture, and can also function as a background against which we may form our own authentic views of life. The Christian tradition is closely connected to the Christian community, which functions as a social group to which people may belong and by reference to which they can define their identity. These four functions shed light on the question why people attach value to participating in the Christian tradition, and why they deplore the decline of the Christian tradition

My conclusions are the following:We can distinguish between two sorts of kowledge: intellectual knowledge (knowledge of true propositions) and experiential knowledge (knowledge of how certain experiences feel).If we want the doctrine of divine omniscience to be theologically relevant, we will have to assert that divine omniscience involves experiential as well as intellectual omniscience.In order to be omniscient, God does not need to share all the feelings of His creatures with them. However, in order to be experientially omniscient, God must have undergone at least some experiences Himself.If God would be able to have these experiences only by becoming incarnate, God would need the incarnation in order to become omniscient. In this respect human nature would then be more perfect than the divine nature: it would be capable of knowing things which God could only come to know by becoming human. It is therefore preferable to maintain that the divine nature itself is capable of undergoing certain experiences.If the divine nature were incapable of undergoing any experience, God would nevertheless be able to have a vast knowledge of true propositions concerning experiences. For descriptions of experiences and for the evaluation of these descriptions, however, He would be dependent in principle upon His creatures