Idealism, Realism and Biblical Theism

Painting by the author. The world is an incredibly beautiful place. Is the question of idealism versus realism answered when considering the universe, including the intelligence needed to contemplate it, as the greatest possible work of art?

In the last post, idealism and realism were examined. Is mind primary, or even all there is? Or is everything matter and if there is actually mind, is it just a by-product of matter? The exploration of this question is part of the overall quest for a Theology of Everything, or, as a commenter suggested, TONE (theology of nearly everything) rather than TOE. Can biblical revelation or teaching have anything to say to this question?

First, my impression is that the bible is agnostic on the question of idealism versus realism. As I suggested before, my own inclination is toward realism but I have moved steadily toward a view closer to idealism. I would consider myself now an idealist-realist which finds its logic in the Pauli-Jung conjecture, as explained below.

Christian theology through the ages represents a twisted path when it comes to the question of idealism and realism. Wolfhart Pannenberg, one of the prominent theologians of the past fifty years, in his book of essays on science and faith called Toward a Theology of Nature explained how the idealism of Berkeley, Kant and Hegel lost favor in Christian theological circles. He explains that the mystical tradition influenced the idealists and helped lead to the equivalence of spirit and mind. This was a factor in Descartes’ famous dualism separating mind/spirit from the material world, but that proved…