Science, Biochemistry, and Pantheism in Arthur Peacocke

Abstract

This article presents and discusses the body of doctrines elaborated by Arthur Peacocke about the idea of God, and of what is theologico-christian, that today should be constructed from the scientific image of the world, especially the scientific image of life, evolution, and the human being. After presenting the biochemical origins of his thought, the totality of his work about science/religion, and his epistemological presuppositions, we outline Peacocke's form of understanding the nature of the world described today by the basic findings of science (What's There and What's Going On). Science, and first of all, philosophers, have tried to endow the universe with ultimate intelligibility. God appears in the horizon as a possible factor for intelligibility that allows the comprehension of the fundamental traits of God's possible action in the world. AII this leads to the emergentist, panentheistic classical vision of Peacocke; and to his discussion with process philosophy. Finally, we present his manner of understanding the theology of kenosis from a scientific perspective, and we discuss the implication and significance of his point of view.