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In this paper I will discuss three different aspects of the relationship between cosmology and theology. The first part of the paper takes up the first of these. There I will adopt my most familiar role as a professional theoretical physicist and will try to describe models of the very early universe near the Big Bang which seem plausible and central within the dominant current theory, Einstein's theory of relativity. Theology plays a role in this Big-Bang description in a most peripheral way; it enters only in the choice of the subject matter. Cosmology has always appeared as a portion of the conceptualized physical world that is particularly fascinating to broad audiences and to theologians. This may be because cosmology cannot dismiss broad and universal questions as lying outside its special domain, or it may be because of the exhilaration of surveying such a broad and dramatic landscape. It is in any case appropriate that theology not be developed in complete disregard for the physical world revealed to us by common experience and further by scientific observation and experiment. Therefore, I will present some modern conceptualizations of the physical Universe in the hope that they may provide useful raw material for philosophical and theological discussion.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4615-8780-4_7

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