Can We Jointly Contribute to Scientifically Informed Worldviews? A Look From Life-Sciences to Theology

Abstract

To address the question whether theology is a science, I suggest comparing theology and the life-sciences from a practice-oriented perspective. For that purpose, the conceptual framework of life-sciences is introduced describing its study objects, its methodological assumptions, and its interpretative horizon. Moreover, how the results, models and understanding generated by the life-sciences are utilized is discussed regarding the aim to attain a scientifically informed worldview. This includes the integration of results and understanding provided by the life-sciences with those of other academic disciplines, and information transfer to the world. This paper intends to provide the preliminary work for a systematic comparison between theology and the life-sciences, which may display sufficient similarity to argue for a joint contribution to the development of scientifically informed worldviews.