The Philosophical and Theological Relevance of Evolutionary Anthropology

The Philosophical and Theological Relevance of Evolutionary Anthropology
Author: Martin Breul
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2023-03-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000858545

This book explores the philosophical and theological significance of evolutionary anthropology and includes diverse approaches to the relationship between evolution, culture, and religion. Particular emphasis is placed on the work of Michael Tomasello, who contributes an opening chapter that tackles the role of religion in his natural history of human thinking and human morality. The first section of the book considers the philosophical foundations of evolutionary anthropology and shows that evolutionary anthropology is open to a multitude of philosophical analyses. The second part offers theological perspectives on the relationship between evolutionary and theological anthropology and between evolution and religion. The volume also reflects more broadly on the complex relationship between religion and science in the contexts of late-modern societies. It makes a significant contribution to the religion and science debate and offers performative evidence that an interdisciplinary discussion between theologians, philosophers, and natural scientists is feasible.

Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology

Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology
Author: Celia Deane-Drummond
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-01-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000033899

This book sets out some of the latest scientific findings around the evolutionary development of religion and faith and then explores their theological implications. This unique combination of perspectives raises fascinating questions about the characteristics that are considered integral for a flourishing social and religious life and allows us to start to ask where in the evolutionary record they first show up in a distinctly human manner. The book builds a case for connecting theology and evolutionary anthropology using both historical and contemporary sources of knowledge to try and understand the origins of wisdom, humility, and grace in ‘deep time’. In the section on wisdom, the book examines the origins of complex decision-making in humans through the archaeological record, recent discoveries in evolutionary anthropology, and the philosophical richness of semiotics. The book then moves to an exploration of the origin of characteristics integral to the social life of small-scale communities, which then points in an indirect way to the disposition of humility. Finally, it investigates the theological dimensions of grace and considers how artefacts left behind in the material record by our human ancestors, and the perspective they reflect, might inform contemporary concepts of grace. This is a cutting-edge volume that refuses to commit the errors of either too easy a synthesis or too facile a separation between science and religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies and theology – especially those who interact with scientific fields – as well as academics working in anthropology of religion.

The Evolution of Human Wisdom

The Evolution of Human Wisdom
Author: Celia Deane-Drummond
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2017-10-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498548466

This volume addresses key questions about the puzzle of human origins by focusing on a topic that is largely unexplored thus far, namely, the evolution of human wisdom. How can we best understand the human capacity for wisdom, where did it come from, and how did it emerge? It explores lines of convergence and divergence between Christian theology and evolutionary anthropology in its search to identify different aspects of wisdom. Critical to this discussion are the philosophical difficulties that arise when two very different methodological approaches to the manner of humans becoming wise are brought together. The relative importance and significance of human language is another area of intense debate in defining the meaning of wisdom and its expression. How far and to what extent does a theologically informed wisdom discourse push evolutionary anthropology to formulate new questions and vice versa? This volume shows that there is no simple consonance between evolutionary anthropology and theology. Yet, each discipline has much to learn from the other; the authors are in agreement that even in the midst of an awareness of dissonance and some tension, there can still be mutual respect. The goal of this book is to begin to develop a trans-disciplinary approach to the evolution of human wisdom, where each discipline is challenged to ask questions in a new way. This volume tackles the relationship between theology and science in a fresh way by focusing on a specific theme—wisdom—that is equally generative for both theology and evolutionary anthropology.

Human Evolution

Human Evolution
Author: Mary Maxwell
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 1984
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780231059466

This book is both an introduction and an original contribution to a study of the major evolutionary events, from the orgin of life to the emerence of the human mind.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Theological Anthropology

The Ashgate Research Companion to Theological Anthropology
Author: Joshua R. Farris
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317041313

In recent scholarship there is an emerging interest in the integration of philosophy and theology. Philosophers and theologians address the relationship between body and soul and its implications for theological anthropology. In so doing, philosopher-theologians interact with cognitive science, biological evolution, psychology, and sociology. Reflecting these exciting new developments, The Ashgate Research Companion to Theological Anthropology is a resource for philosophers and theologians, students and scholars, interested in the constructive, critical exploration of a theology of human persons. Throughout this collection of newly authored contributions, key themes are addressed: human agency and grace, the soul, sin and salvation, Christology, glory, feminism, the theology of human nature, and other major themes in theological anthropology in historic as well as contemporary contexts.

Science and Religious Anthropology

Science and Religious Anthropology
Author: Wesley J. Wildman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317059077

Science and Religious Anthropology explores the convergence of the biological sciences, human sciences, and humanities around a spiritually evocative, naturalistic vision of human life. The disciplinary contributions are at different levels of complexity, from evolution of brains to existential longings, and from embodied sociality to ecosystem habitat. The resulting interpretation of the human condition supports some aspects of traditional theological thinking in the world's religious traditions while seriously challenging other aspects. Wesley Wildman draws out these implications for philosophical and religious anthropology and argues that the modern secular interpretation of humanity is most compatible with a religious form of naturalistic humanism. This book resists the reduction of meaning and value questions while taking scientific theories about human life with full seriousness. It argues for a religious interpretation of human beings as bodily creatures emerging within a natural environment that permits engagement with the valuational potentials of reality. This engagement promotes socially borne spiritual quests to realize and harmonize values in everything human beings do, from the forging of cultures to the crafting of personal convictions.

Conversations on Human Nature

Conversations on Human Nature
Author: Agustín Fuentes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315431513

Recent empirical and philosophical research into the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, the origins of the mind/brain, and the development of human culture has sparked heated debates about what it means to be human and how knowledge about humans from the sciences and humanities should be understood. Conversations on Human Nature, featuring 20 interviews with leading scholars in biology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology, brings these debates to life for teachers, students, and general readers. The book-outlines the basic scientific, philosophical and theological issues involved in understanding human nature;-organizes material from the various disciplines under four broad headings: (1) evolution, brains and human nature; (2) biocultural human nature; (3) persons, minds and human nature, (4) religion, theology and human nature; -concludes with Fuentes and Visala's discussion of what researchers into human nature agree on, what they disagree on, and what we need to learn to resolve those differences.

The Evolution of Religion, Religiosity and Theology

The Evolution of Religion, Religiosity and Theology
Author: Jay R. Feierman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2019-09-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000704858

This book takes a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary approach to religion, religiosity and theology from their earliest beginnings to the present day. It uniquely brings together the natural sciences and theology to explore how religious practice emerged and developed through the four sections into which the book is organized: Evolutionary biology; Philosophical linguistics, psychology and neuroscience; Theology and Anthropology. The volume features an international panel of contributors who develop an innovative picture of religion as a culturally-created social institution; religiosity as a more personal and subjective anthropological element of people expressed through religion; and theology as the study of god. To survive in changing times, living systems — a good characterization of religion, religiosity and theology — all must adaptively evolve. This is a vital study of a rapidly burgeoning field. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars in religious studies and theology as well as in the psychological, sociological, and anthropological study of religion.

Reforming Theological Anthropology

Reforming Theological Anthropology
Author: F. LeRon Shults
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2003-02-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802848871

With the profound changes in today's intellectual and scientific landscape, traditional ways of speaking about human nature, sin, and the image of God have lost their explanatory power. In this volume F.LeRon Shults explores the challenges to and opportunities for rethinking current religious views of humankind in contemporary Western culture. From philosophy to theology, from physics to psychology, we find a turn to the categories of "relationality." Shults briefly traces this history from Aristotle to Levinas, showing its impact on the Christian doctrine of anthropology, and he argues that the biblical understanding of humanity has much to contribute to today's dialogue on persons and on human becoming in relation to God and others. Shults's work stands as a potent effort to reform theological anthropology in a way that restores its relevance to contemporary interpretations of the world and our place in it.

Human Origins and the Image of God

Human Origins and the Image of God
Author: Lilley & Pedersen, eds.
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802875149

How did human beings originate? What, if anything, makes us unique? These questions have long been central to philosophers, theologians, and scientists. This book continues that robust interdisciplinary conversation with contributions from an international team of scholars whose expertise ranges from biology and anthropology to philosophical theology and ethics. The fourteen chapters in this volume are organized around Wentzel van Huyssteen's pioneering work in human rationality, embodiment, and evolutionary history. Bringing a variety of diverse perspectives to bear on a hotly debated issue, Human Origins and the Image of God showcases new research by some of today's finest scholars working on questions regarding human origins and human uniqueness.