ABSTRACT
The relations between theology and the natural sciences are relevant to a range of problems in the philosophical underpinnings of Christian thought. The importance of theology's relation to science arises out of the fundamental ways in which Christianity and natural science are linked with the character and evolution of Western culture. For many centuries Christianity, in the characteristic fashion of religious systems, provided Western culture with its understanding of human nature and of the reality in which this was set. The realms of personal and cosmological meaning were integrated in a Christian-inspired vision of the destiny of humankind in the world. With the growth of natural science since the seventeenth century, Christian theology has faced the challenge of integrating its understanding of human nature and reality with accounts originating in sources in scientific theorizing which are at once autonomous and questioning of many traditional Christian perceptions.
