Mainline Christianity and the Risk of Self-Contradiction

One of the central insights of modern science is that all existence is profoundly interconnected. Nothing exists in isolation; everything exists in relationship. This resonates deeply with Christian trinitarian theology, which understands God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—mutually indwelling, dynamically relational.

Yet this rich relational ontology has not penetrated deeply enough into the Christian understanding of creation or God's immanent presence in the world. Too often, creation is still viewed as a collection of isolated objects to which God relates from above, and human beings as detached individuals. As a result, gospel preaching commonly addresses the individual disconnected not only from the wider world but also from the relational web of existence that both science and theology describe. The rest of creation is thus either ignored or treated as a mere backdrop for God's redemptive drama with humanity.

But this creates a serious tension. The natural sciences describe creation as it truly is: an evolving, interdependent, and deeply relational cosmos. If Christian theology continues to operate as though this world were otherwise, it risks losing coherence. Surprisingly little attention has been given to this gap even though the triune God—whose very being is relational—is central to Christian confession.

Two factors may help explain this reluctance. First, Christianity has long favoured systematized knowledge, which offers a sense of certainty. Second, both church and theology have often reflected a preference for top-down control—whether God’s or their own. In contrast, modern science describes a world composed of quantum fields in flux—indeterminate, dynamic, and relational. To many, such a world may seem unmanageable or even threatening.

Yet this is the world we inhabit. And it is a world that resonates more with the relational Trinity than with static metaphors of control. Unless Christianity is willing to take this evolving, interconnected cosmos seriously, it may find itself drifting into self-contradiction: affirming a relational God while clinging to a view of the world out of tune with the being of its creator.