Table of Content
COSMOS AND REVELATION
Reimaging God's Creation in the Age of Science
Introduction
An Autobiographical Note
How the Book Came to Be Written
Obstacles Ahead
Content and Structure
The Audience
The Challenge for the Churches
Affirmations, Limits, Advocacy
1. The Nature of Revelation
The Dimension of Mystery
A Brief Theology of Revelation
Revelation – the Cosmic Context
Revelation in History
Personal and Public Revelation
The Problem of God’s Hiddenness
Revelation or Science?
Science as Revelation?
Conclusion
2. The Biblical Account of Creation
Text and Revelation
Approaching the Text
Inspiration
Names for God
Composition of the Text
Issues of Interpretation
All About Meaning
Conclusion
3. The New Cosmic Story – A Narration
The Birth of the Universe
The Travail of Galaxies
The Significance of Stars
The Birth of a Planet
Light from the Past
Cosmic Breakthrough – Living Forms
Living Cells – A Wonderland
Embedded Wisdom?
Conclusion
4. Understanding Our Place in the Universe
Discovering Cosmic Perspectives
Theory of Knowledge (a brief introduction)
Ancient Cosmologies
Cosmologies of Classical Antiquity
The Ptolemaic Cosmos
Newton’s Mechanical Universe
The New Cosmology: Fundamental Wholeness
Cosmic Fine-Tuning, Size Scales, Calendar
Conclusion
5. Humanity: An Evolving Phenomenon
Background
Footprints in Tanzania
Homo erectus and his Relatives
The Earliest Cosmopolitan Homo and his Successors
The Rise of Homo sapiens
Learning Skills in Human Infancy
The Awakening of an Interior Horizon
Why We Cannot Ignore the Past
Conclusion
6. The Rise of Human Consciousness
Towards a Biology of the Human Spirit
The Consciousness of Place and Power
The Human Brain – Complexity and Mystery
The Spirituality of Children
The Mystical Mind
Consciousness as Inside Story of the Universe
Conclusion
7. The Inside Story Solidifies: Religious Symbols
On the Way to Revelation – Symbol Recognition
Perception of Symbols in Religious Experiences
The Nature of Religious Experiences
On the Structure of Religious Symbols
Ancient Symbols of Divinity
The Quest to Render Life Secure
The Rise of Monotheism
The Biblical Trajectory
Jesus and the Rise of Abba Consciousness
Christ: The Revelation of God's Love
The Depth of the Inside Story
Conclusion
8. Desire, Sacrifice, and Revelation
Desire as the Basis for Human Agency
How We Became Human
On Sacrifice, Scapegoats and Victims
The Mimetic Constitution of the Human Person
The Crisis of God as Abba
The Revelation of the Forgiving Victim
Conclusion
9. Toward an Expanded Theology
Of Seashells and Pebbles
Wholeness
Subjectivity
Inwardness
Christian Inertia
Abba Incarnate
Trinity
World Without End? – A Concluding Reflection
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index