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撮要

本文以菲羅普諾(Philoponos)在六世紀整合自然科學及神學的貢獻為引子， 指出自然科學可作為通向及認識上帝的途徑。作者在第二部分中，以現代自然科學「或然性」(Contingence)概念、愛因斯坦的「相對論」，及現代數學研究的發現，指出自然科學的研究皆揭示宇宙的開放性及其理性秩序的或然性，而這些皆指向一超越的理性及秩序 – 創造者/上帝，自然科學就是在這方面，正如成為肉身的道及光——基督，成為人通往上帝的途徑。

ABSTRACT

It is because science rests upon an understanding of the contingent nature and order of the created universe established by Christian theology that it is possible today to think of science as serving access to God. The two-way relation between science and theology was exhibited by Philoponos in his revolutionary conception of science, basic to which was a way of thinking strictly in accordance with the nature and reality things under investigation. Christian theology opened up for him access to science, and his science thus understood served his access to God. Of primary importance for him was a) the doctrine of creation out of nothing which demanded a unitary conception of the universe and its contingent rational order, and b) the biblical distinction between uncreated light and created light. This impelled him to develop a physics of light in a dynamic open-structured way which radically changed the foundations of ancient science. Of immense importance was his development and coordination of light theory and impetus theory which gave rise to dynamic conceptions of space and time, and which anticipated the epoch-making work of Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein, upon which all modern empirico-theroetical science now rests.

原載於《建道學刊》10期（1998年7月），頁43-58。