Thank you for your reply!
There's an analogy there, but contemplation of the world-process doesn't lead anyone to the incarnation because the world process is itself not a member of the trinity.
Indeed. I don't believe that was Pannenberg's objective, though. In reading his book, I am of the understanding that he is seeking a theology of nature and not a gospel via nature. By my reading, he suggests that a new doctrine of the Trinity which emphasizes the role of The Word in creation (and continuance) would be helpful.
"Perhaps a renewed doctrine of the Trinity would combine the Logos doctrine of the ancient church with contemporary information theory and recognize the activity of the divine spirit in the self-transcendence of life and its evolution [or to borrow a term from science, its "emergence"]. Only a Trinitarian theology is able to meet effectively the emancipation of the concept of the world that Newton had in mind -- that is, the mechanical description of nature that is not only a theoretical construction but takes place in the actual processes of the world itself. A Christian theology of creation will be able to develop a description that does justice to this emancipation of the world process and at the same time removes its disassociation from its divine origin only by way of the theology of the Trinity, in a perspective of the history of salvation. In this way it will also cope with the critique of Leibnitz insofar as as Newton's idea of God was not commensurate with this task. However, a theology of nature must not go back behind Newton's thought on the presence of God with his creatures through space and time, if theology is to avoid the spell of a powerless dualism of spirit and matter."
The Word in creation is recorded in Scripture. Not surprisingly, science seems to agree with those passages: harmonics as the least common denominator of resonance in the universe, the zero point field. And also the sound waves in the cosmic background radiation at the moment photons decoupled and light went its way. Or, if one prefers to emphasize Logos extended to "logic" - the unreasonable effectiveness of math, dimensionality, physical constants, etc.
None of these observations of nature constitute a Gospel message, but rather could be seen as physical evidence of the Scriptural message of the Trinity.
There's an analogy there, but contemplation of the world-process doesn't lead anyone to the incarnation because the world process is itself not a member of the trinity. Thanks to you both for your replies!
cornelis, I didn't mean to suggest that the world process is a member of the Trinity. What I did mean to suggest is that the world process is the result of the purpose and actions of the divine Trinity -- Father, Son, and Spirit.
I'm sorry if what I wrote was confusing....