What is Science‐Engaged Theology?

Is there a journal less likely than Modern Theology to devote a special issue to the natural sciences? When we were in grad school, we would have said, “No and I hope they never descend to that. You see, Modern Theology does real theology.” Real theology, we thought, should always be queen of the sciences. We had picked up the fads of our generation, and one such fad was the idea that whenever scientists were invited to the theological table, then theology would automatically assume a subservient position. But then we came across Kenneth Surin’s founding editorial in Modern Theology that promised to study “theology in relation to history and culture . . . and the natural and social sciences.” How did this square with the rest of the journal’s bold vision? We were not able to piece it together until later. What we were picking up on, however— without quite sensing the significance— was theology’s “new boldness.” That was Kathryn Tanner’s phrase in her essay reflecting on Modern Theology’s first twentyfive years. Tanner was not alone. In the twentyfifth anniversary issue of the journal, several former editors and current editorial board members recounted some version of the same outlook. No longer were theology’s options constrained by modernity; it was time to proclaim a pox on both houses— those too ready to culturally accommodate and those too ready to culturally repudiate. What should replace the tired options of modernity varies, depending on whom you ask. For George Lindbeck, theology should be understood as a culturallinguistic grammar— because the old options, which looked like opposites (experientialexpressivist and cognitivepropositionalist), were in fact fighting on the same side. For Stanley Hauerwas, theology should take the form of ecclesial practices of resident alien Christians— because the old options, which looked like opposites (Democrats and Republicans), were in fact members of the same family squabbling over who had jurisdiction of the kitchen. For Kenneth Surin, theology was defined as whatever would