Intheology,critical realism is anepistemological position adopted by a community of scientists turned theologians.[citation needed] They are influenced by the scientist turned philosopherMichael Polanyi. Polanyi's ideas were taken up enthusiastically byT. F. Torrance, whose work in this area has influenced many theologians calling themselves critical realists. This community includesJohn Polkinghorne,Ian Barbour, andArthur Peacocke.[1]
The aim of the group is to show that the language ofscience andChristian theology are similar, forming a starting point for a dialogue between the two.Alister McGrath andWentzel van Huyssteen (the latter ofPrinceton Theological Seminary) are recent contributors to this strand. TheNew Testament scholarN. T. Wright also writes on this topic:
... I propose a form ofcritical realism. This is a way of describing the process of "knowing" that acknowledges thereality of the thing known, as something other than the knower (hence "realism"), while fully acknowledging that the only access we have to this reality lies along the spiralling path ofappropriate dialogue or conversation between the knower and the thing known (hence "critical").[2]
Wright's fellow biblical scholar,James Dunn, encountered the thought ofBernard Lonergan as mediated throughBen F. Meyer. Much of North American critical realism—later used in the service of theology—has its source in the thought of Lonergan rather than Polanyi.
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