[Ultimate knowledge and the encounter with the ultimate. Religion and sciences]

The idea of a reciprocal exteriority between religion and science must be called into question from a more careful examination of the status of science. The understanding which is expressed in the body of the propositions recognised as "scientifically established" constitutes only a moment in a process, which has a provenance, in the form of a pre-understanding, and which aims at a state of thought which would be as a totalising vision. Scientific thinking is not totally separated from speculative thinking and this one intersects the cognitive component of religious experience. It is thus possible to recognise a positive affinity between scientific thinking, considered in its internal dynamism, and religious experience.