ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a fuller explanation of Christian faith can be developed by scientists and theologians working together to offer explanations that may be considered unique to their fields of study. On the one hand, I propose that faith can be considered to emerge as an extraordinary response to the revelatory power of God––which offers a theological explanation. On the other hand, I argue that there are many other causal factors of Christian faith that are observable to scientists. That is, God ordains that there will be natural media in, through, and with which God communicates. These include the kind of social, psychological and neurological phenomena that scientists study. As such, a scientific understanding of these phenomena also contributes to an explanation of the “what,” “how,” and “why” of Christian faith. I conclude that, when theologians and scientists work together, their respective explanations will often raise more questions than they answer and, indeed, may require each side to rethink their own lines of questioning. This means that each side can push the other side to recognise that Christian faith is far more complex and, indeed, less easily explicable than they might previously have assumed (based on their own independent research). Yet, insofar as this dialogue generates a deeper and fuller explanation of what Christian faith is, it will have been successful.
