Finding Ourselves After Darwin

A multinational team of scholars focuses on the interface between Christian doctrine and evolutionary scientific research, exploring the theological consequences for the doctrines of original sin, the image of God, and the problem of evil. Moving past the misperception that science and faith are irreconcilable, the book compares alternative models to those that have generated faith-science conflict and equips students, pastors, and anyone interested in origins to develop a critical and scientifically informed orthodox faith.

In God After Darwin, eminent theologian John F. Haught argues that the ongoing debate between Darwinian evolutionists and Christian apologists is fundamentally misdirected: Both sides persist in focusing on an explanation of underlying design and order in the universe. Haught suggests that what is lacking in both of these competing ideologies is the notion of novelty, a necessary component of evolution and the essence of the unfolding of the divine mystery. He argues that Darwin's disturbing picture of life, instead of being hostile to religion-as scientific skeptics and many believers have thought it to be-actually provides a most fertile setting for mature reflection on the idea of God. Solidly grounded in scholarship, Haught's explanation of the relationship between theology and evolution is both accessible and engaging. The second edition of God After Darwin features an entirely new chapter on the ongoing, controversial debate between intelligent design and evolution, including an assessment of Haught's experience as an expert witness in the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District on teaching evolution and intelligent design in schools.

In celebration of Alister E. McGrath's sixty-fifth birthday in 2018, this Festschrift aims to highlight him as a lauded scholar, who exemplifies an interface of science, theology, and religion. It comprises works by McGrath's theological allies and colleagues from diverse ecclesial homes including Graham Ward, Oliver Crisp, Tony Lane, Sung Wook Chung, Randall Zachman, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Jonathan Wilson, Jeffrey P. Greenman, Robert Kolb, Sister Benedicta Ward, Michael Lloyd, Bethany Sollereder, and Patrick Franklin. Critical but appreciative is the posture with which these contributors engage the wide range of McGrath's own scholarly pursuits and publications. This volume, edited by Dennis Ngien, covers these themes that are central to the life and witness of the church: atonement, Christology, Trinity, eschatology, mission, Reformation, science, nature, culture, evangelism, and theodicy--there is much to ponder and reap here. Readers will join with the contributors and pay tribute to McGrath who has risen to a life of significance as a scientist turned theologian, professor, author, Christian apologist, and churchman.

Why do humans who seem to be exemplars of virtue also have the capacity to act in atrocious ways? What are the roots of tendencies for sin and evil? A popular assumption is that it is our animalistic natures that are responsible for human immorality and sin, while our moral nature curtails and contains such tendencies through human powers of freedom and higher reason. This book challenges such assumptions as being far too simplistic. Through a careful engagement with evolutionary and psychological literature, Celia Deane-Drummond argues that tendencies towards vice are, more often than not, distortions of the very virtues that are capable of making us good. After beginning with Augustine's classic theory of original sin, the book probes the philosophical implications of sin's origins in dialogue with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. Different vices are treated in both individual and collective settings in keeping with a multispecies approach. Areas covered include selfishness, pride, violence, anger, injustice, greed, envy, gluttony, deception, lying, lust, despair, anxiety, and sloth. The work of Thomas Aquinas helps to illuminate and clarify much of this discussion on vice, including those vices which are more distinctive for human persons in community with other beings. Such an approach amounts to a search for the shadow side of human nature, shadow sophia. Facing that shadow is part of a fuller understanding of what makes us human and thus this book is a contribution to both theological anthropology and theological ethics.

The much anticipated sequel to McLaren's award-winning "A New Kind of Christian" captures a new spirit of a relevant Christianity, where traditional divisions and doctrinal differences give way to a focus on God.

Is a life cycle that depends on eating or being eaten compatible with a creation in which 'the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork'? Are animal death and extinction manifestations of a good God's majesty and power? When creating the world, did God use animal death and extinction as a means to realize his intentions? This study challenges the view that the emergence and acceptance of the theory of evolution brought a break in thinking about animal suffering in a good creation. Even before Darwin, people thought about animal suffering, about how God's goodness and good creation related to this, and about whether animals were already subject to death in paradise. Historically, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution did not form a watershed in the debate about animal suffering, nor did concerns about animal suffering only emerge with the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Original Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference develops an interdisciplinary conversation between evolutionary biology, feminist philosophy, and theology in order to illuminate the entanglement of Christian thinking about original sin with theologies of sexual difference. It then assesses the opportunities for rethinking original sin and its implications for theologies of sexual difference in light of developments in evolutionary biology and feminist theology and philosophy. Despite some resistances in the present age to conceptions of both original sin and meaningful sexual differences, this study argues that both can provide essential insights that help to make sense of some of the features of human life in the twenty-first century, especially the stubborn persistence of inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the pernicious patterns of sexual violence and abuse that have been uncovered by the #MeToo movement. To this end, Megan Loumagne Ulishney marshals resources from a variety of places-Augustine of Hippo, feminist theology, the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, John Paul II, and a new group of feminist philosophers known as the New Feminist Materialists-to develop an analysis of original sin and sexual difference that is grounded in both scientific and theological insights about creaturely life. The project cultivates a sense of wonder at the diversity and unpredictability of human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human participation that partially shapes our ongoing evolution, and humility about the extent to which we can predict and control the future of the evolution of our species. It illuminates the interdependencies that define creaturely life, the persistent entanglement of nature and culture, the centrality of desire to human identity and behaviour, and the role played by biology in the transmission of sin. It develops a vision of material life as evolving, generative, and imbued with activity, but also as simultaneously infected with sin and saturated with the divine.

Leading scholars from around the world engage with key facets of N. T. Wright's most important work, providing a window onto major debates and developments in New Testament studies in recent decades. These essays focus on N. T. Wright's contribution to New Testament theology and interpretation over the past four decades. The structure is three-fold, corresponding to the three areas of classic Jewish theology that Wright views as starting points for discerning the shape of New Testament theology: monotheism, election, and eschatology. Working within these broad categories, the contributors critically engage with Wright's work from both biblical and theological perspectives.