I recall a student essay on science and faith which began "science is to do with the material, but Christian faith is immaterial!" Although this is just an example of rather poor writing, it does belie a common misconception and reminds us that there is a feeling "out there" that science deals with concrete things - things you can be certain about- but, theology deals with rather less tangible and uncertain things. But they share a great deal in common.

Developments in chemistry depend on the work and insight of people who toil in labs. Developments in theology are dependent on people who toil in what Ericson calls the 'exegetical vineyard.' Both attempt to systematize truth, and both seek to have practical outcomes - for they are both human enterprises! And remember both involve presuppositions.

A common problem shared by chemistry and theology is that theories and inventions of the human imagination sometimes get mistaken for facts and reality. The basis of chemistry is observations, reactions and facts about atoms and molecules. Chemists determine their structure and see how they change when they react together. They do molecular demolition, and they do molecular architecture. The basis of the subject is the structures and the changes they undergo. After we have collected an appropriate body of facts, and made a significant number of observations, we look for patterns and try to make generalizations.

We then think of theories to explain things and try to test those theories out by doing further experiments. Note that the correct order of things in science (and chemistry in particular) is facts which precede principles and theories. Chemists as human beings love to systematize what they know. So they start discussing theories, without presenting the facts the theories are supposed to explain! It turns out that one of the problems with chemistry teaching is that theories and principles begin to take on a life of their own, and be taught for their own sake.

Now why would I be telling theology students one of the in-house problems we face in chemical education? It is because I see something similar happening in theology, especially in academic circles. People begin to play intellectual games and systematize knowledge, so that it is presented in some kind of rational order and eventually the theory is presented, without a lot of reference to the facts which it is supposed to be explaining. Clark Pinnock wrote about this in his book " Tracking the Maze." He points out that theology must be seen as a secondary language that reflects on the meaning of the primary story -"the facts". The basis of knowledge both in science and theology is that truth is not a matter of opinion, but is found i.e. 'discovered' out there rather than invented in our minds.

In Christianity the basis of truth is revelation conveyed by the Christian story, mediated through the written and incarnate word. This revealed story is for the Christian the facts, the truth. The narrative is not a set of propositions and theories, statements of doctrinal theology - it is an account of events that happened. Truth and meaning for Christianity lie with the narrative. Theology exists to serve the story, and not the other way round, just as theories and concepts exist to serve the facts.

Theologians do not have the right to replace revealed text with their interpretations or their theories about them. Nor do chemists have the right to substitute theory for fact, or concept for reality. It is the primary task of the chemist to explore the materials he finds in the natural world, to identify their nature and examine their structure. From this he may be able to explain how they came to be as they are and predict what they might become if the conditions are changed. It is the primary task of the theologian to explore the revealed story he finds and then to expound it and tell us what its meaning is.

So just as chemistry is not really about say thermodynamics and quantum mechanics - but about real substances we find in nature, so theology is not just about some biblical theory of inspiration, but about how God really came in Christ and showed Himself to us. Of course theories are very important in science, as are doctrines in Christianity - but they must both come out of some bedrock truth - which in chemistry is the experiment and in Christianity is the truth of the revealed story.

Theories perform the servant role in chemistry and science, to give intellectual meaning to the facts as far as they are known. Theology also performs a servant role to Christianity to give intellectual meaning to the revealed story, as far as it can be known.

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