POLANYIS FINALISM

Although Michael Polanyi's model of science and his construal of the n ature of the real are usually thought to be congenial to religion and although Polanyi himself says that ''the stage on which we thus resume our full intellectual powers is borrowed from the Christian scheme of Fall and Redemption'' (Polanyi 1958, 324), theologians have given lit tle attention to the model of God he presents. The metaphysical and th eological vision unfolded in part 4 of Personal Knowledge is a thought ful alternative to materialist versions of neo-Darwinism and provides a platform for revisiting four long-standing controversies at the inte rface of science and religion: whether life and mind can be completely specified in terms of physical analysis, whether nature can be adequa tely understood without appeal to final causes, whether natural select ion adequately explains life's diverse forms, and whether knowledge ca n be fully objectified. Through an exploration of Polanyi's contributi on to these discussions, we undertake to show not only that his treatm ent of God as a cosmic field is strikingly original but also chat in r einstating activity as a metaphysical category, he reconstructs our un derstanding of our creaturely hope and calling.