Design and Disorder

The concept of a divine design has traditionally been based on the assumption of a world order. If there is order in creation, this proves there is a God: if disorder, then no God. Or so it has been assumed by design proponents as well as their critics.The present volume questions this picture. The sciences of complexity show how nature abounds with fluid and semi-stable patterns which are essential for the emergence and further propagation of evolutionary order. Order and disorder seem to wander together.

The fact that fundamental physics, chemistry and mathematics appear as if tuned for the emergence and harbouring of life, for the support and channelling of the evolutionary processes of creation and selection, continues to trigger religious awe and reflection. It is also argued that a Christian theology has the potential of affirming instability and transient orders as part of the 'grandeur' of creation. Authors include prominent voices from the secular, the Protestant, the Catholic and the Orthodox traditions.

Introduction Ulf Gorman
How Chaos Co-Exists with Order John D. Barrow
Revisiting Darwin on Order and Design John Hedley Brooke
Beyond the Balance: Theology in a Self-Organizing World Niels Henrik Gregersen Landscape of Human Discourse John C. Puddefoot
Science and Religion: Beyond Complementarity? Isabelle Stengers
On Finality in Creation Theology Christoph Theobald sj
Design in the Universe and the Logos of Creation: Patristic Synthesis and Modern Cosmology Alexei V. Nesteruk
Disorder and the Ambitions of 'Science and Theology': Ten Theses Willem B. Drees

Niels Henrik Gregersen is Research Professor in Theology & Science at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Ulf Görman is Professor of Ethics at Lund University, Sweden.