Robert John Russell, Cosmology: From Alpha to Omega (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2008), xi + 344 Pp., $29.00.
Robert John Russell is professor of theology and science at Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California, and is the founding director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS). For Russell, this book represents the pinnacle of twenty five years of research and scholarship regarding the relation of science and religion. He has sought over these years to construct a ‘bridge’ between the two disciplines, and this book is the fruit of his collective labors. The chapters of the book are arranged according to their theological focus, which arrangement parallels the standard layout in systematic theology textbooks. Thus, chapters one through three deal with God and creation, whereas chapters four through six deal with divine action in nature. Further, chapters seven and eight treat moral and natural evil, respectively. Chapters nine and ten shift the focus upon the new creation at the eschaton.
Generally speaking, at least five themes can be discerned from Russell’s writings that are contained herein. For example, Russell argues for the historicity of the Big Bang, and thus the finitude of time. Seen in this way, the universe is completely dependent upon God, irrespective of the time parameters that one may posit for its origination. Second, Russell argues for divine action to occur at the quantum level. He posits that quantum-based divine action would not rupture any laws of nature, since quantum theory states that quantum events are intrinsically indeterminate. Thus, Russell sees quantum divine action to be non-interventionist. He favors quantum-based divine action over and above competing theories that may entail God to work in chaotic systems, or in a top-down manner, as with the metaphorical picture of the world as the body of God.
The third main theme found within this text is that the problem of evil is not truly a problem at all, but merely an avenue of possibility-exploration instead. He argues that amoral entities cannot be judged by moral categories, and as such, ‘natural evil’ (consisting of the plentiful amounts of ‘violence’, e.g., in nature) is not really evil at all; it just is (i.e., it is normal). The fourth prevailing theme is that in the resurrection of Christ, humanity is given hope for God’s radical new creation. One should note, especially in view of the prevailing thinking today, especially regarding the future of the world to be either a freeze or fry scenario, that in the resurrection of Jesus, there was both continuity and discontinuity in his post-resurrection body. This fact gives credence to the notion that our resurrection bodies – and the new creation – might hold a semblance of what we have known, but they will be radically different as well.
A fifth and final theme running throughout is a derivative of Process Theology, though Russell is not a full-fledged Process Theologian. He notes that science and theology should be a in a creative mutual interaction, which necessarily means that both sides of the ‘equation’ are altered. Science is seen to be a check, of sorts, upon theology in Russell’s model. Moreover, Russell contends that theology can suggest creative questions, topics, or conceptions of nature that scientists might find helpful in their research quests. In sum, this volume by Russell provides the interested reader with foundational insights into the perpetually ongoing discussion between the disciplines of science and theology. Herein one finds that Russell not only posits that the two dialogue with one another, but also that the mutually interact and form one another, which is a new perspective. I heartily recommend this title for graduate and postgraduate level students of philosophy, science, or religion.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA