V&R Religion, Theologie und Naturwissenschaft/ Religion, Theology, and Natural Science Herausgegeben von Antje Jackelén, Gebhard Lohr, Ted Peters und Nicolaas A. Rupke Band 15 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Paul D. Numrich (ed.) The Boundaries of Knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, and Science Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. ISBN 978-3-525-56987-0 © 2008, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Hinweis zu §52a UrhG: Weder das Werk noch seine Teile dürfen ohne vorherige schriftliche Einwilligung des Verlages öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden. Dies gilt auch bei einer entsprechenden Nutzung für Lehr- und Unterrichtszwecke. Printed in Germany. Satz: OLD-Media OHG, Neckarsteinach. Druck und Bindung: ® Hubert & Co, Göttingen. Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier. Table of Contents Preface Paul D. Numrich 7 Chapter 1 Reality and Knowledge Paul D. Numrich 9 Chapter 2 Science and Buddhism: Two Complementary Modes of Knowledge Trinh Xuan Thuan 22 Chapter 3 Buddhism and the Epistemic Discourses of Modernity David L. McMahan 43 Chapter 4 Shinran and Heidegger on Truth Dennis Hirota 59 Chapter 5 Buddhism, Christianity, and Physics: An Epistemological Turn Mark T. Unno 80 Chapter 6 Constrained by Boundaries PaulO. Ingram 105 Chapter 7 Mystery and God: Living within the Boundaries of Human Knowledge Gordon D. Kaufman 129 Chapter 8 "Knowing Too Much Is Knowing Too Little": A Theological Appraisal of the Boundaries of Knowledge Antje Jackelén 149 Chapter 9 The Oddest Word: Paradoxes of Theological Discourse Tom Christenson 164 6 Table of Contents Chapter 10 Limits of Scientific Knowledge John R. Albright 184 Contributors 199 Preface Several years ago I read an article in a respected popular magazine sum- marizing contemporary science-religion dialogue. I recognized the Chris- tian contours of the article and wondered, How might this article - and contemporary science-religion dialogue - be different if Buddhist insights were considered? This simple question led to a funded project, a public conference, and the present collection of essays by a distinguished group of scholars (see Numrich: this volume). This volume brings together insights from religion (represented by Bud- dhism and Christianity) and science to address the deepest questions about reality and knowledge - not the usual offering in contemporary science- religion dialogue. In the opening chapter, I ruminate on the boundaries and limits of human knowledge, focusing especially on the inadequacies of conceptualization and language in understanding reality, as recognized by both science and religion. The other chapters move largely from Buddhism to Christianity to science, although several incorporate insights from more than one of these worldviews. Trinh Xuan Thuan (Chapter 2) discusses the complementarity of the domains of knowledge in science and Buddhism. David L. McMahan (Chapter 3) explores Buddhist discourses about sci- ence in the modern period, while Dennis Hirota (Chapter 4) compares the views of the medieval patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism, Shinran, and the modern Western philosopher Martin Heidegger. Mark T. Unno (Chapter 5) and Paul O. Ingram (Chapter 6) range across the three worldviews, while Gordon D. Kaufman (Chapter 7), Antje Jackelén (Chapter 8), and Tom Christenson (Chapter 9) focus on Christian theological perspectives. John R. Albright (Chapter 10) concludes the volume with a discussion of scientific knowledge. My deepest gratitude goes to the John Templeton Foundation for fund- ing the project that eventuated in this volume. For their aid and encourage- ment, the following individuals deserve special recognition: Paul K. Wason, Director of Science and Religion Programs; Andrew Rick-Miller, Program Officer; Patricia B. Franklin, Program Associate; and Patrick Brennan, Grants Program Associate. Kimon Sargeant at the Met;anexus Institute first encouraged me to propose this project to the Templeton Foundation, for which I am very grateful. The project's advisory group brought together four experts on Bud- dhism, Christianity, and science: Roger Blomquist, Nuclear Engineer, Ar- gonne National Laboratory; Thomas Kasulis, Professor of Japanese Re- 8 Preface ligions and Asian and Western Philosophies, The Ohio State University; Donald Luck, T. A. Kantonen Professor of Theology (Emeritus), Trinity Lutheran Seminary; and George Murphy, adjunct faculty in Science-The- ology Dialogue and Systematic Theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary In addition to these formal advisors, Robert W. Numrich, Senior Research Associate at the Supercomputing Institute for Digital Simulation and Ad- vanced Computation, served as unofficial gadfly to the project. These indi- viduals helpfully critiqued drafts of the chapters in this volume. As editor I take responsibility for the volume's shortcomings, but I cannot take full credit for its accomplishments - these stem from the remarkable insights and collegiality of all involved. Several individuals at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus made this volume possible in a variety of ways. The deans of the Consor- tium seminaries supported the larger project as they have all of my pro- grammatic efforts: Don Huber of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, John Kampen of Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and Michael Ross of Pontifical College Josephinum. My student assistants, Brian Dickensheets (Methodist Theological School) and Monica Pierce (Trinity Lutheran Seminary), per- formed ably and greatly eased my load. The following administrators and staff deserve grateful recognition for the services they provided the project: from Methodist Theological School, Colleen Perry Keith, Executive Vice President; Jere T. Schräder, Assistant Controller; and Diane Kensinger, Ac- counting Services; from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Margaret L. Farnham, Director of Communications; and Nona Jensen, Faculty Secretary. I must not forget the students in my classes who showed interest in the project even in contexts unrelated to the topic of contemporary science-religion dialogue. Two organizations helped to publicize the project: the Society for Bud- dhist-Christian Studies and the Ohio Council of Churches. My special thanks to Harry Wells and Rebecca Tollefson, respectively. The fine people at Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht deserve much credit for producing this volume, especially Tina Bruns, Editor, Theology and Reli- gion. As always, my wife Christine commands the most appreciation. We have shared a long and winding road since East High School. One technical aspect of the volume deserves brief comment. We do not include diacritical marks in non-English words and names, with the excep- tion of the German umlaut. Instead, we use the nearest equivalent letter for the diacritic. April 2008 PaulD. Numrich Chapter 1 Reality and Knowledge PaulD. Numrich1 1 The Biggest Questions One of the textbooks I assigned in an introductory philosophy course some years ago was entitled The Big Questions (Solomon: 41994). To my mind, one of the biggest questions is, What is reality, or what is "real"? Phi- losophy is not the only branch of human endeavor that weighs in on this question. Science and religion also aspire to understand reality. The present volume addresses the equally big (and related) question, What can we know about reality or what is "real"? Thus, this volume has an epistemological agenda in bringing together insights from religion (rep- resented by Buddhism and Christianity) and science. Rather than offering formulaic treatments about how religions might accommodate the latest scientific discoveries or engaging in narrowly construed theoretical and doctrinal discussions, this volume inquires into profound epistemological issues that cut across these worldviews. How do Buddhism, Christianity, and science explore the boundaries between the known and the unknown? What do they define as unknowable? How do they participate in the hu- man quest for knowledge about reality? This volume goes beyond the usual fare in contemporary science-religion dialogue. Here science and religion engage each other's attempts to understand reality. The project that produced this volume did not begin with this in mind. In 2005, the John Templeton Foundation awarded me a grant for a proj- ect entitled Comparative Religious Perspectives on Science: Buddhism and Christianity. My intention was to widen religious representation and chal- lenge common assumptions in contemporary science-religion dialogue, which has been dominated by Christianity on the religion side. For in- stance, in his discussion of cosmology, Christian theologian and physicist Robert John Russell (2000, 30) resolves the question of why anything ex- ists, as opposed to nothing, by saying, "The answer is 'God'." In Creative Tension: Essays on Science and Religion, cosmologist, Catholic priest, and 1 My thanks to George Murphy and Robert W. Numrich for their astute critiques of a draft of this chapter. Neither is culpable for remaining shortcomings. 10 Paul D. Numrich Templeton Prize recipient Michael Heller (2003, chapter 4) offers "A Pro- gram for Theology of Science" based