Dialog Teologic XXIX/58 (2026)

Dialog Teologic XXIX/58 (2026)
 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/PLIH3382

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Florin-Emilian ŢURCANU
Light between physics and theology: analogical convergence, epistemological limits, and the rationality of creation
This article examines the epistemological conditions under which light can function as a locus of dialogue between physics and theology, without concordism, reductionism, category error, or appeal to a “God of the gaps.” The guiding question concerns the methodological rules required for the two discourses to meet without one being reduced to the other. The thesis defended is that the only legitimate form of convergence is analogical and stratified: physics describes the properties, interactions, and cosmological role of light through empirico-mathematical methods, metaphysics interrogates the intelligibility of this description, and theology interprets creation in relation to the Logos and its finality — three distinct yet not isolated levels. The article draws on the author’s own interdisciplinary profile (engineering and theological formation) to propose a methodological model more precise than the simplified formula “science answers how, theology answers why,” refining it through the Thomistic rule of analogy and through four recent studies by the theologian Gabriel-Iulian Robu on the limits of conceptual language about the divine. The article discusses, as a methodological case study, the figure of the priest-physicist Georges Lemaître and formulates three serious objections to its own argument — epistemic asymmetry, the rhetorical risk of analogy, and the “God of the gaps” objection — to which it responds, concluding with three operational criteria for a responsible dialogue.