Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
A good deal has already been written on the possible relevance of Niels Bohr's principle of ‘complementarity’ to various theological issues. Bohr, himself, suggested that the concept might be useful in discussions concerning the relation of intra-mundane causality and divine providence, or that of human freedom and divine sovereignty. These suggestions have been taken up and developed by C. A. Coulson and D. M. Mackay, but they have also seriously been criticized, notably by I. G. Barbour. The principal difficulty encountered in regarding God and the world as ‘complementary’, in Bohr's sense of the term, is that Creator and creature are generally thought to be two distinct ‘entities’, in Christian ‘theism’, rather than two ‘modes’ of a single entity as ‘wave’ and ‘particle’ are two ‘complementary’ modes of an atomic object in physics.
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page 37 note 8 Atomic Theory, pp. 24, 100f, 117, and Atomic Physics, pp. 11, 78; cf. Brody, N. and Oppenheim, P., ‘Application of Bohr's principle of complementarity to the mind-body problem’, Journal of Philosophy LXVI (1969), 97–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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page 39 note 1 On the use of the terms ‘incompatible’ and ‘coreferential’ see Bedau, H. and Oppenheim, P., ‘Complementarity in quantum mechanics: a logical analysis’, Synthese 13 (1961), 216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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page 40 note 3 ContraAustin, W. H., loc. cit. pp. 30f., 89.Google Scholar
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page 42 note 2 Atomic Theory, pp. 13, 23, Atomic Physics, pp. 6f., 9, and Essays, pp. 5, 11.
page 42 note 3 Atomic Physics, p. 9, Essays, p. 5.
page 42 note 4 Atomic Theory, pp. 11, 15, 54, and Atomic Physics, pp. 50ff., 78ff., 91f.; cf. Petersen, A., ‘The philosophy of Niels Bohr’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists xix, 9 (1963), 11.Google Scholar
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page 43 note 2 Cf. Hilary, On the Trinity 11.7, ix.72.
page 43 note 3 Atomic Theory, p. 96, Atomic Physics, p. 26.
page 43 note 4 ‘One being (phýsis) of the divine Word made flesh’, Cyril of Alexandria, Epistle 4Google Scholar (Against Nestorius 2).
page 44 note 1 Atomic Theory, p. 88, Atomic Physics, p. 98.
page 44 note 2 Leontius of Byzantium, Against Nestorius and Eutyches 1Google Scholar; Leontius of Jerusalem, Against Nestorius 11. 13.Google Scholar
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page 44 note 4 Atomic Physics, p. 90.
page 44 note 5 Atomic Theory, p. 55, and Atomic Physics, pp. 4, 46. On the current status of this ‘semi-classical’ approach see Scully, M. O. and Sargent, M. III, ‘The concept of the photon’, Physics Today xxv, 3 (1972), 38–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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page 44 note 7 Atomic Theory, pp. 10, 56, 94 and Atomic Physics, pp. 5, 26, 40, 74.
page 44 note 8 Atomic Physics, pp. 6, 9; cf. Atomic Theory, pp. 12, 87.
page 44 note 9 Atomic Physics, pp. 42f.
page 45 note 1 Pseudo-Cyril, , On the Holy Trinity 24Google Scholar; and John of Damascus On the Orthodox Faith 111.17Google Scholar; see Wolfson, H. A., The Philosophy of the Church Fathers 1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1956), pp. 423–7.Google Scholar
page 45 note 2 Atomic Physics, pp. 42f.
page 45 note 3 Hilary, , On the Trinity ix.5Google Scholar; Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101Google Scholar; Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius 1.95, v.5, vi.2ff.Google Scholar
page 45 note 4 Atomic Physics, pp. 42f., cf. pp. 19, 99 on particles ‘in’ atoms.
page 45 note 5 Atomic Theory, pp. 10, 19, 54, 77f., 85, 107.
page 45 note 6 Austin, Contra W. H., loc. cit. pp. 26, 31, 86f.Google Scholar
page 45 note 7 Atomic Theory, pp. 11, 59f., 63, 94.
page 45 note 8 Gregory, of Nazianzus, , Orations 37.2, 38.13.Google Scholar
page 45 note 9 Third Council of Constantinople (A.D. 681); cf. John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 111.13.Google Scholar
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page 46 note 2 Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius vi.1Google Scholar; Cyril of Alexandria, Epistles 4, 40, 46.Google Scholar
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page 46 note 4 Atomic Theory, pp. 23, 81, Atomic Physics, pp. 6f., 9, 99, and Essays, pp. 34, 63, 84.
page 46 note 5 Cf. Barbour, I. G., Myths, Models and Paradigms, p. 152.Google Scholar
page 46 note 6 Atomic Physics, pp. 4, 46.
page 46 note 7 Landé, Notably A., From Dualism to Unity in Quantum Mechanics (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960), pp. vii, xiiif.Google Scholar, 73f., 100, 104.
page 48 note 1 See e.g. Lossky, V., The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (Cambridge: James Clarke, 1957), ch. 5.Google Scholar
page 48 note 2 Compare Professor John Hick's analysis of the ‘Augustinian’ and ‘Irenaean’ types of theodicy in Evil and the God of Love (London: Macmillan, 1966Google Scholar, Fontana Library, 1968).