Vladimir Katasonov

Science and Religion: New Methodological Opportunities

Vladimir Katasonov — Chair Professor of Philosophy,
St. Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate Institute of the Russian Orthodox Church;
Professor at the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s University of Humanities
(Moscow, Russia). vladimir15k@mail.ru

The paper deals with logical and historical relations of science and religion. Science is dualistic: it seeks to learn the world and to dominate over it. Christianity sees the world, before all, as a display of the Divine; but faith is not just contemplation but also the way of salvation. Science is a sequence of falsified and verified theories. In religion, the knowledge of God is given in revelation, but refracted through a tradition, hence the importance of interpretation. Truth in science is a consensus of a competent community; truth in religion is also the consent with Church’s dogmas but it is also ontological, a participation in God’s life, a theosis. Religion and sciences have been in a constant interaction in history. The paper offers a positive strategy in dealing with these interactions — the so called «Leibnitz methodology» exploring metaphysical preconditions of scientific knowledge and finally producing a horizon for a certain natural religion

1. МЫ рассматриваем здесь взаимоотношение науки и религии в разных аспектах: как деятельности, как учения, в плане понимания истины, в институциональном аспекте, в историческом плане. В конце обсуждается стратегия новой методологии исследований по науке и религии.

2. Как деятельность наука — мы говорим сейчас в основном о естествознании — представляет собой желание познать мир.