Messer’s Typology: An Investigation into the Relationship Between Science and Christian Theology

Abstract

Several thinkers in the field of science and theology have categorised the various views on the relationship between science and Christian theology in typologies. These typologies are often descriptive and are intended to make describing the positions of individual thinkers and/or schools of thought easier and simpler. One typology is that of Neil Messer and is unique in that it categorises different views on the relationship between science and theology in terms of the relative importance given to science and theology by that thinker/school of thought. In this thesis, I shall look at three of the five Types on Messer’s typology with the aim of discerning which is the most satisfactory formulation of the relationship between science and Christian theology in the context of the contemporary West. I shall undertake this this task by focusing on one of the three chosen Types in each chapter and investigating how satisfactorily an example of that Type formulates a relationship between science and Christian theology. This investigation shall be facilitated using analogies from works of speculative fiction which portray a relationship between magic and electronic/mechanical technology – relationships which will be compared and contrasted with the relationship between science and Christian theology as it is presented by the thinkers/schools of thought. Ultimately, I shall conclude that of the three Types I have discussed from Messer’s typology (Types 1, 4.5, and 3 respectively), Type 3 as is the most satisfactory formulation of the relationship between science and Christian theology in the contemporary West. This is because it provides an account where science and Christian theology both exist within and contribute to our understanding of the same ‘ultimate’ reality.