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Creative Tension introduces a new voice to the growing global dialogue on science and religion. Heller, a renowned professor of philosophy in Poland, who is also a Roman Catholic priest, addresses the question of whether one can be both religious and a scientist at the same time. Through a series of sequential essays, he explores stages through which one can synthesize the different and demanding activities of science and religion into one coherent way of life. The book begins with methodological evaluation of the theological interpretation of scientific theories, culminating in a proposal for a 'theology of science.' Next, the interplay of science and religion are considered from a historical perspective, and the evolution of ideas connected with man;s place in the universe and the evolution of matter are discussed. These pave the way to the 'real encounter' when theology explores creation, and science tries to decipher the structure of the universe with the help of mathematical and empirical methods. Heller's analytic and systematic studies incorporate questions designed to open the intuition. 'Does not what today transcends the limits of science suggest something that transcends the limits of all scientific methods', he queries? 'Does not the fact that the world can, after all, be put into abstract formulae and equations suggest to us that the abstract thought is more significant than concrete matter?' In the end, Heller looks for vestiges of transcedence in some key issues of contemporary science and discusses the theological implications of his conclusions.
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