The Theology of Everything

Shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey prize 2019.

Human beings have gathered a vast amount of knowledge, but we each know only a little of it. We become specialists in narrow fields, from Airbus pilots to Zulu historians, then find it difficult to see what all of these areas of expertise might mean together.

This book makes two radical claims. The first is that all of our human faculties have evolved to show us important things about the universe, including our appreciation of beauty, our ability to make scientific measurements, our awareness of meaning and goodness, and our experiences of consciousness and community. We usually divide these different kinds of insights among different professions, but we can gain a far deeper understanding of reality if we bring them all together. The second claim is that it is Christian theology which can reveal that unity, resuming a traditional role that it has largely abandoned in recent centuries.

Far more comprehensively than atheism, a belief in God can offer a framework which makes sense of all our experiences in one coherent, rational and inspiring picture, a true theory of everything. The Renaissance can be found again in the 21st century.

The Revd Dr Keith Eyeons is a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, where he is the Chaplain and Director of Studies in Theology, Religon and Philosophy of Religion. His degrees have included the study of Physics, Theology, and the History and Philosophy of Science.