Is Christian science possible? Methodological problems of the synthesis of Christian theology with scientific method of knowledge.

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleВозможна ли христианская наука? Методологические проблемы синтеза богословия и научного метода познания.
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Ethics - Culture and national identities - Various approaches to the problem of correlation between science and theology - Orthodox Anthropology - Scientific theories and disciplines > Psychology-Psychoanalysis - Scientific theories and disciplines - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning
6. Publication date 15-12-2016
7. lemma work Чернышев, Андрей Валентинович [Author]. Возможна ли христианская наука? Методологические проблемы синтеза богословия и научного метода познания.
8. lemma manifestations Вестник Тамбовского университета. Серия: Гуманитарные науки
9. Keywords Christian science - Christian scientific community - Early Church Fathers
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Чернышев, Андрей Валентинович, Чернышева, Марта Леонидовна & Бочаров, Александр Сергеевич (2013). Возможна ли христианская наука? Методологические проблемы синтеза христианского богословия и научного метода познания. В<em>естник Тамбовского университета. Серия: Гуманитарные науки. </em>Retrieved from: <a href="http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vozmozhna-li-hristianskaya-nauka-metodologicheskie-problemy-sinteza-hristianskogo-bogosloviya-i-nauchnogo-metoda-poznaniya">http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vozmozhna-li-hristianskaya-nauka-metodologicheskie-problemy-sinteza-hristianskogo-bogosloviya-i-nauchnogo-metoda-poznaniya</a> </p>
12. Lemma body

    1. The creation of Christian science nowadays seems problematic, because this would require one to be both a professional scientist and have an Orthodox Christian worldview. According to 2011-2012 opinion polls, 80 % of Russians claimed to be Orthodox Christians while only 5-7 % of them shared the Orthodox Christian worldview: the traditional attitude to the questions of life and death, marriage, work ethics, authority and science, as well as bioethical problems. In fact, these self-proclaimed Orthodox Christians share the same opinion with atheists on euthanasia, abortion and divorce. This proves that Russians see the Orthodox Church as a “producer of rituals” rather than a “producer of meanings.” At the same time Orthodox Christians want to avoid conflicts between Christian teachings and their professional lives.

       The roots of Christian Science are to be found in the teachings of the founding fathers of the Orthodox Church. The key question in the concept of Christian Science is the influence of Christian teachings not only on private life and private views of scientists but on their scientific worldview and methodology. Priest Viktor Gusev approached the issue in the following terms: “It is absurd to talk about Christian mathematics and physics (…) but we can and should talk about Christian psychology because it deals with the personality and the interaction of personalities.”

       There are three major types of human knowledge. The first one is scientific. It examines existing phenomena that can be experienced with the help of senses. The second type of knowledge is faith, which concerns something that exists but cannot be examined by the senses. The third type is represented by illusion – something that does not exist but one believes in it based on his or her false subjective experience. This classification helps to divide science into three categories. Most technical and natural sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, etc.) belong to the first category. In this case worldviews of scientists do not influence their scientific professional progress. The second category is represented by biology and other cosmology sciences that use descriptive methods and try to answer questions about the origins and development of life. The third category comprises social sciences (psychology, anthropology, sociology), which can be compatible with Christian scientific methodology: Orthodox Christian understanding of an individual; basic understanding of Christian anthropology; human as made in the image of God; meaning of life; human body and its perishability; specific characteristics of a human being; personality and being; Orthodox triad as the base of the teaching on human beings (body-soul-spirit); spiritual and mental.

       There are also sciences that can be situated between social sciences and the humanities. They can be called “normative sciences” and include ethics, aesthetics, and art studies. These sciences almost always create absolute categories (and sometimes norms). In this sense they are close to humanities that work with absolute categories. Christian ethics and aesthetics should thus guide scientists. Taking into consideration the Social Conception of the Russian Orthodox Church, the latter should work out principles and documents that would comment on the “ethical code of conduct” for a Christian scientist; basic methodological values; principles of self-organization for Christian scientific communities; examples and patterns for solutions of both theoretical and applied problems.