Published In

Systems Theory and Theology: The Living Interplay between Science and Religion

Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

2011

Subjects

Religion and science, System theory

Abstract

This paper conceptualizes spiritual disciplines as sciences. It uses this conceptualization to probe into the similarities and differences between modern science and religious tradition, and into the cultural significance and possible future impact of the “new religions”. The paper draws upon the ideas of Michael Polanyi as a possible bridge between science and religion, and proposes that these ideas are relevant not only to the major Western religions, but to Eastern and non-mainstream Western religions as well. Imagining science as a spiritual path, or gnosis, would challenge an exclusivist understanding of scientific knowledge, and suggest the relevance of such knowledge to wisdom. Interpreting the spiritual disciplines as inner sciences might help strengthen and purify religious practice, and lead also to a critique of science and a new conception of its possibilities. These unconventional perspectives provide a novel basis for a dialogue between science and religion. However, since there are many differences between “inner” and “outer” research, the metaphor of spiritual disciplines as sciences is limited; if taken too literally, it will obscure more than it illuminates. This is an updated version of a talk with the same title given in 1985. Keywords: personal knowledge, Michael Polanyi, spiritual disciplines, inner science, eastern religion

Rights

This is the author's manuscript version of a chapter published in Systems Theory and Theology: the Living Interplay Between Science and Religion edited by Markus Ekkehard Locker, 2011.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42742

Publisher

Pickwick Publications

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