title: Did God create our universe? Theological reflections on the Big Bang, inflation, and quantum cosmologies.
abstract: The sciences and the humanities, including theology, form an epistemic hierarchy that ensures both constraint and irreducibility. At the same time, theological methodology is analogous to scientific methodology, though with several important differences. This model of interaction between science and theology can be seen illustrated in a consideration of the relation between contemporary cosmology (Big Bang cosmology, cosmic inflation, and quantum cosmology) and Christian systematic and natural theology. In light of developments in cosmology, the question of origins has become theologically less interesting than that of the cosmic evolution of a contingent universe.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union-Berkeley, California 94709, USA. rrussell@ctns.org
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Russell
mesh_terms: D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D006801:Humans; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010825:Physics; D011789:Quantum Theory; D028725:Theology