FRUITFUL INTERCHANGE OR POLITE CHITCHAT - THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY

The demand that epistemic support be explicated as rational compulsion has consistently undermined the dialogue between theology and science . Rational compulsion entails too restrictive a form of epistemic supp ort for most: scientific theorizing, let alone interdisciplinary dialo gue. This essay presents a less restrictive form of epistemic support, explicated not as rational compulsion but as explanatory power. Once this notion of epistemic support is developed, a genuinely productive interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and science becomes possib le. This essay closes by sketching how the Big Bang model from cosmolo gy and the Christian doctrine of Creation can be viewed as supporting each other.