Alister McGrath: A Fine Tuned Universe
Having laid out – briefly – the argument of McGrath, I would now like to critique his usage of the term ‘Trinitarian’ throughout the first 108 pages of the text. I counted, roughly, 300 references to the term ‘Trinitarian’ within this section of the book, more than 100 references to ‘God’, and a couple of dozen references to ‘Jesus’. That is all fine and well; however, I could find only three references to the ‘Holy Spirit’, one of which had to be inferred from a ‘two hands of God’ comment. So, how truly ‘Trinitarian’ is McGrath’s argument? From his lack of reference to the third member of the Trinity, I would have to say, in name only; whether this criticism of my own might belie his intention to lay out a ‘Trinitarian’ natural theology, someone else must adjudicate. Nevertheless, with this significant criticism aside, McGrath has produced a gem with this text, one which is profitable to all with interests in the relationship between science and theology.
Reviewed by Bradford McCall