Science and Administration of Knowledge in the Document Communion and Stewardship

The first part of the third chapter of the document Communion and Stewardship, entitled "The Image of God: The Administrator of the Visible Creation," is briefly presented and critically analyzed. Science and technology as a form of knowledge and administration of the creation by man should be seen as service to God and to his plan for the whole of creation. Theories on the origin of the universe and of man attract the interest of theology as concerns the theological doctrine on creation of the universe from nothing and of man to the image of God. The creation of each human soul by God is a basis for the relationship between God and each human person from the very beginning of its existence. God is not only the universal cause of creation, but He is also the cause of secondary created causes including man, so that these causes achieve their effects due to the action of this First Cause. Theology cannot decide whether the process of evolution in nature is accidental or intentional, nevertheless it calls attention to the fact that divine providence could achieve its goals in any casual way. From the theological point of view, such a process of evolution that would be beyond divine providence is not possible at all. According to John Paul II, the origin of the firsthuman beings represents in the process of evolution an "ontological jump" that should be ascribed to the intervention of God. On the other hand, this view can hardly avoid a certain type of dualism dividing the human soul and body while the Holy Scripture underlines the unity of both.

Keywords: Science; Administration of knowledge; Theology of creation; Theological anthropology; Cosmology; Evolution; International Theological Commission; Communion and Stewardship