Templeton Foundation Press recently published Eric Middleton’s The New Flatlanders: The Seeker’s Guide to the Theory of Everything, which explores topics in science and religion in an accessible question and answer format. In this book, Middleton connects the discussion of science and religion to the parable Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, written by Edward A. Abbott in the nineteenth century.
TFP Editor: When did you make the connection of the classic parable Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions with the topics you discover and discuss?
Middleton: In the 1970s, I came across the story of Flatland and knew immediately that this would be the key to understanding the nature of reality involving more than three space dimensions. At the time, the concept of many dimensions was only mathematical and theoretical. The development of the concept of supergravity and superstrings in ten or eleven dimensions in the “Superstring revolution of 1984” led me to work on an overarching “Theory of Everything” during my sabbatical as a Fellow at Durham University.
It was there that I discovered that the origin of five dimensions was first opened up by Theodor Kaluza in 1919. My next stage was to visit his son (also Theodor) in Hanover. On a visit to Germany, Theodor Jr. generously gave me photocopies of the correspondence from Einstein to his father. (At the request of John Stachel of Boston University I sent further copies for inclusion in the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein and also via Paul Davies for display at his Royal Society lectures).
All this was to lead to an MSc in “Higher Dimensional Theories in Physics following the Kaluza Model of Unification.” Interestingly, while at Durham, the professor of Greek Studies confirmed that in Plato’s cave (the other wonderful analogue to Flatland) Plato may well have accepted my thesis of its parallels with Flatland, since the Greeks did not in fact have a word for “dimension.”
Thus, the concept of a two-dimensional Flatland was lying-in-wait for the discovery of the overall synthesis of Ed Witten’s m-theory in eleven dimensions in 1996. The whole search had involved finding a language for talking, for describing the indescribable, of both eleven dimensions and of the reality of the Holy Spirit.
When I was invited to hold discussions on science and faith, the story of Flatland proved to be the mental and spiritual catalyst for each group. It was the key turning point for my atheist and agnostic students, particularly as I introduced them to the story in non-religious terms. They were always invited to enter Flatland for themselves, and to discover what would happen next—what did the Flatlanders think, and what would the Sphere do next?
In our voyage of discovery, we explored the Flatland experience by walking in the shoes of two-dimensional Flatlanders and the three-dimensional sphere. “What if…What happens next?” Disdainful of church and formal religion, they themselves brought out the central ideas of incarnation, resurrection etc. “It really made me think!” was the response of Angus and others.
Flatland was to become the bridge as they began to see how science, at the cutting edge of today, resonates with the spiritual dimensions. The enormously creative parable bears much extrapolation for both theology—and even science!
