I  4   Faith, the Bible, Science

1.4.1.
Theological research on Jesus and the Bible aims to spread the Christian world view; it has developed its own

specific working methods and access to theological research is restricted to members of the Christian or Jewish faith communities.

1.4.2.
This creates the problematic issue that is outlined by the terms faith and science. There are various approaches to solving this conflict:

a. Synthesis: medieval scholasticism attempted to synthesise the Christian faith with classical philosophy, generating wonderful systems – but as we know, these have not been recognised everywhere.

b. The two kingdoms approach: faith and science describe different areas of reality that function according to different laws. They should be analysed separately. Many Christians live and work successfully according to this approach, allocating different demands to different areas of life.

c. Science without the God hypothesis: in 1799, the French mathematician and astronomer Laplace answered Napoleon’s question about God: “Sire, I no longer need the God hypothesis“. Modern science works according to this principle of practical atheism. The question of God is excluded; the God hypothesis is not part of the search for solutions.