scholarly journals Lecture two: The evolution of morality: The emergence of personhood

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Evolution Of Morality ◽  
Epistemic Standing

In a series of three articles, presented at the Goshen Annual Conference on Science and Religion in 2015, with the theme ‘Interdisciplinary Theology and the Archeology of Personhood’, J. Wentzel van Huyssteen considers the problem of human evolution – also referred to as ‘the archaeology of personhood’ – and its broader impact on theological anthropology. This trajectory of lectures tracks a select number of challenging contemporary proposals for the evolution of crucially important aspects of human personhood. Lecture Two argues that, on a postfoundationalist view, some of our religious beliefs are indeed more plausible and credible than others. This also goes for our tendency to moralise and for the strong moral convictions, we often hold. It demonstrates that, in spite of a powerful focus on the evolutionary origins of moral awareness, ethics emerge on a culturally autonomous level, which means that the epistemic standing of the particular moral judgements human beings make is independent of whatever the natural sciences can says about their genesis.

scholarly journals Lecture One: Rediscovering Darwin for theology – Rethinking human personhood

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Evolution Of Morality ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
History Of

In a series of three articles, presented at the Goshen Annual Conference on Science and Religion in 2015, with the theme ‘Interdisciplinary Theology and the Archeology of Personhood’, J. Wentzel van Huyssteen considers the problem of human evolution – also referred to as ‘the archaeology of personhood’ – and its broader impact on theological anthropology. These Goshen Lectures explore the potentiality that the history of human evolution provides bridge theories to theological anthropology and thus to a positive and constructive way of appropriating Darwinian thought for a public, interdisciplinary Christian theology. Lecture One tracks a select number of contemporary proposals for the evolution of aspects of human personhood. These aspects were of significance for Darwin: the evolution of cognition; the evolution of imagination, music and language; the evolution of morality; and the evolution of the religious disposition. The article acknowledges the close ties to hominid ancestors and focuses on the emergence of human distinctiveness, consciousness and personhood, and the propensity for religious awareness and experience.

scholarly journals Lecture three: From empathy to embodied faith: Interdisciplinary perspectives on the evolution of religion

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Evolution Of Morality ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Evolution Of Religion

In a series of three articles, presented at the Goshen Annual Conference on Science and Religion in 2015, with the theme ‘Interdisciplinary Theology and the Archeology of Personhood’, J. Wentzel van Huyssteen considers the problem of human evolution – also referred to as ‘the archaeology of personhood’ – and its broader impact on theological anthropology. This trajectory of lectures tracks a select number of challenging contemporary proposals for the evolution of crucially important aspects of human personhood. These are aspects that were all of great significance for Darwin: the evolution of cognition, the evolution of imagination, music and language, the evolution of morality, and the evolution of the religious disposition.

From Decline of the West to Dawn of Day

Janus Head ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Hub Zwart ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
The West ◽  
Smart Technologies

This paper subjects Dan Brown’s most recent novel Origin to a philosophical reading. Origin is regarded as a literary window into contemporary technoscience, inviting us to explore its transformative momentum and disruptive impact, focusing on the cultural significance of artificial intelligence and computer science: on the way in which established world-views are challenged by the incessant wave of scientific discoveries made possible by super-computation. While initially focusing on the tension between science and religion, the novel’s attention gradually shifts to the increased dependence of human beings on smart technologies and artificial (or even “synthetic”) intelligence. Origin’s message, I will argue, reverberates with Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, which aims to outline a morphology of world civilizations. Although the novel starts with a series of oppositions, most notably between religion and science, the eventual tendency is towards convergence, synthesis and sublation, exemplified by Sagrada Família as a monumental symptom of this transition. Three instances of convergence will be highlighted, namely the convergence between science and religion, between humanity and technology and between the natural sciences and the humanities.

Religion in the Age of the Anthropocene

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianne F. Conty
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Risks And Benefits ◽  
Human Exceptionalism ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Forms Of Life

Though responses to the Anthropocene have largely come from the natural and social sciences, religious responses to the Anthropocene have also been gaining momentum and many scholars have been calling for a religious response to complement scientific responses to climate change. Yet because Genesis 1:28 does indeed tell human beings to ‘subdue the earth’ monotheistic religions have often been understood as complicit in the human exceptionalism that is thought to have created the conditions for the Anthropocene. In distinction to such Biblical traditions, indigenous animistic cultures have typically respected all forms of life as ‘persons’ and such traditions have thus become a source of inspiration for ecological movements. After discussing contemporary Christian efforts to integrate the natural sciences and the environment into their responses to the Anthropocene, this article will turn to animism and seek to evaluate the risks and benefits that could ensue from a postmodern form of animism that could provide a necessary postsecular response to the Anthropocene.

Literature and Aesthetic Reading as Means of Promoting Nonviolence

2018 ◽  
pp. 94-109
Author(s):  
Diana Presadă
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Academic Environment ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Ethical Skills

In an increasingly violent world, reading literary works and the teaching of literature in school may play an important part in shaping students' personality as human beings. Turning literature classes into an effective way of cultivating ethical values in learners should be an educational goal of the curriculum irrespective of the level of study. Starting from the data provided by a focus group organized with Philology students within the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, the present chapter aims to highlight how literature classes may increase their moral awareness and develop their ethical skills. More precisely, the study investigates students' perceptions of literature and its role in developing mutual respect and non-violent behavior inside and outside the academic environment.

scholarly journals The Unsuitability of “Unsubstitutability” in Theological Anthropology

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Farris
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
As If

When we wait for a significant other, it is not as if we are waiting for someone who looks like her, talks like her, or even walks like her. Instead, what we want is her. And, the same goes for the afterlife: if there is an afterlife, we long to see our loved ones. Not those who look like our loved ones, who sound like them, or even smell like them, but we actually want them. In the study of human nature, this is, arguably, one of the modern insights on humanity. The question of the “particularity” of human beings matters. In technical philosophical studies, the question of “particularity” is a question of thisness (i.e., the fact that objects are countable as discrete in virtue of some property or feature that makes an object what it is). What makes one person this person rather than that person? By showing how the concept of thisness is important in modern and contemporary theology, I will argue for a specific view as that which accurately captures both the historical consensus and the modern emphasis of personhood.

scholarly journals The zone of non-being: When belonging becomes more important than being

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda L. Du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Speak Up ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Better Than

Silent screams echo in South Africa, objecting to violence due to cultural and gender differences. Bitterness and anger increase as the cultures, knowledge systems and ways of being or ‘non-being’ are despised, demonised and declared substandard and irrational or even eliminated. Most of these individuals cannot afford to speak up, because belonging has become more important than being. It is inevitable that people would question their personhood and dignity when they find themselves in the space of intersection between culture, gender and violence. If the meaning of formosus is to bring out the beauty of each person, how is it that ‘non-being’ for some is better than being? In the fable of Hyginus, an alternative word for ‘being’ is ‘care’. Human beings’ existence is essentially dependent on care. The intersection between culture, gender and violence probes for the reformation of practical theological anthropology and, especially, a rethinking of the ministry of compassion. This article seeks to explore hermeneutics of renewal. The focus is on restoring and reforming the human being which can help non-beings to express their deepest quest for personhood and dignity. In this sense, dignity is defined as being one with all the multiplicities, systems and paradoxes of one’s own way of being, doing and knowing. The epistemology is from a pastoral care point of view.

scholarly journals Transdisciplinarni pristup u razmatranju odnosa znanost — teologija

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-412
Author(s):  
Krešimir Cerovac
Keyword(s):  
Round Table ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Material World ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Modes Of Thought

There are many reasons why a partnership dialogue between theology (religion) and the natural sciences is needed. However, first and foremost this must be a conversation between one human being and another regarding the most important of human interests. The most effective way to approach complex issues and problems in the dialogue between theology and science is the transdisciplinary approach. Transdisciplinarity can solve prob lems which cannot be resolved by separate attempts. This approach can connect different modes of thought, that is, thought beginning with different points of view on the material world or religion. The transdisciplinary approach takes on the role of mediator, which demands at the “round table” that which unites human beings on a universal human level. This is a new, challenging and demanding approach which requires researchers to leave their own field of interest and strive to learn about other fields. The transdisciplinary approach, as “critical rationality” and a new way of thinking, opposed to classical and reductive rationalism, emphasizing objectivity, is based on controlled conflict–induced paradoxes. Transdisciplinarity creates a new quality — which is not an arithmetic sum of individual disciplines — and enables articulation, i.e. a link between two, at first glance, controversial disciplinary modes of thought.

The Evolution of the Soul from Matter and the Role of Science in Karl Rahner's Theology

Horizons ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-104
Author(s):  
Michael Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Area Of Study

AbstractThe relation between science and religion can be difficult for Christian theologians. Some like Whitehead and Teilhard seek full integration of the two; others prefer to keep them at arm's length. Karl Rahner recommends separating them into distinct spheres, yet in practice the general conclusions of science have had a significant influence on his thought. This appears explicitly on the topic of the evolution of the soul from matter. The human soul is part of the order of creation. That order is part of the proper area of study of the natural sciences, according to Rahner. So he listens carefully to what evolutionary scientists say, and maintains an openness to the conclusions of evolutionary and cognitive sciences, in forming his ideas about the origin of the human soul. In doing this he is also implicitly relying on other conclusions developed by science over the last 400 years.

Theory of Knowledge

2016 ◽  
pp. 136-161
Author(s):  
Martha Bolton
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Objective Probability ◽  
Mathematical Science ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
Areas Of Concern

Leibniz’s theory of knowledge is an investigation of the conditions that enable human beings to have that degree of certainty which is appropriate to our various areas of concern. This chapter concerns demonstrative certainty in the sciences of mathematics, which contain necessary a priori truths, and the natural sciences, which are based on the senses and structural principles drawn from reason. According to Leibniz, we rarely attain maximum certainty even in mathematical science. One main problem is to establish first principles with certainty. In lieu of that, Leibniz proposes to convert less than certain theorems to more certain conditionals with axioms as antecedents and theorems as consequents. This is worthwhile because the agreed upon results may prove useful or beneficial. In natural sciences, Leibniz gauges hypotheses on the basis of a theory of objective probability grounded in metaphysics.

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