The scientific field of
quantum mechanics has discovered an infinitely tiny sub-sub microscopic world where the rules of physics as we know them "up here" in the macro-world don't apply. In the quantum world, apparently, a particle can exist in two place at once and can appear somewhere before it appears there. The basic unit of reality is a "
string" that is a bundle of energy until it is directly observed when it turns into a particle. It is a wild and wacky world down there, one that has thrown our understanding of reality for a loop.
The findings of quantum mechanics, surprisingly, don't necessarily throw our theological world into that same loop. Working, rather, from the traditional Christian theological principle that nature is God's first revelation (the Bible being the second one), we discover the possibility of understanding central Christian doctrines in fascinatingly new ways. If God, for example, has created a universe where particles can be appear somewhere before they appear there or can be in two places at once, then we should not have too much trouble in believing that God can be both Utterly Beyond the Cosmos and Intimately Present on Earth. It should not be so difficult for us to affirm that God who is Beyond does not answer prayers, especially ones that call for weather changes, and yet as God who is Present answers those very prayers. Or again, the ancient formula of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, God-man, and man-God makes more sense from a quantum perspective. If "strings" can be one state when unobserved and another under observation, it seems possible for us to affirm that Jesus was a fallible mortal just like the rest of us who was
not a fallible mortal like the rest of us. Suddenly, it seems entirely possible that the Infinite can inhabit the finite, that God could be fully present in Jesus in some way we do not understand but that does make sense in the world science describes.
Quantum physics does not give us license to believe any old silly nonsense we want to believe. By the same token, however, it does encourage us to think about the so-called real world in new, quirkier ways. And it opens up the possibility that in some important ways the "spiritual world" of our faith parallels or has aspects similar to the quantum world.
Who said that theology is boring? Not today!
