The Historicity of Nature

Known as one of the most outstanding theologians of the twentieth century, Wolfhart Pannenberg is also considered a great interdisciplinary thinker. Now, essays and articles on science and theology that are central to understanding Pannenberg's theories have been collected into one volume.

Niels Henrik Gregersen, a former student of Pannenberg and now professor of systematic theology at Copenhagen University, has compiled the writings in four sections: Methodology, Creation and Nature's Historicity, Religion and Anthropology, and Meaning and Metaphysics. Included in this volume are:

• Translations of Pannenberg's principled argument for the consonance between science and religion, including contingency and laws of nature, field theories and space-time, and divine action
• Translations of Pannenberg's theory of theology as a rational hypothetical science, including his discussions with leading British and American scholars such as A. N. Whitehead, John Cobb, and Langdon Gilkey
• Previously unpublished articles on the problems between science and theology in the course of modern history, explaining why chance may be more important for theology than design
• Translations of seminal articles that articulate Pannenberg's understanding of the role of religion in human nature
• One of the few theological articles on aggression as a psychological and social phenomenon

With this collection, the essays of this important contemporary theologian and his illuminating views are presented in one convenient volume.

Niels Henrik Gregersen is professor of systematic theology, University of Copenhagen. Dr. Gregersen holds his PhD from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His two primary research fields are systematic theology and science and religion. He is cofounder and since 2002, executive committee member of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR). Since 2003, he has served as chairperson of the Ecumenical Institute in Strasbourg, France, and as a member of the Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). He is author of four books and has edited a dozen volumes in the fields of theology and science and religion.

Wolfhart Pannenberg is emeritus professor of systematic theology at the University of Munich. One of the best-known German theologians, Pannenberg was born in Stettin, Germany, in 1928. He began his theological studies at the University of Berlin after World War II and completed two doctoral dissertations as early as 1953 and 1955. He studied philosophy with Nicolai Hartman, Karl Jaspers, and Karl Loewith, and theology with Karl Barth, Gerhard von Rad, and Edmund Schlink. He lives in Grafeling, Germany.