There are, I think, two possible interpretations of evolutionary history. The first, which I call the small one, sees evolutionary history as a gradual process of progress. Life started out very simple, but slowly gained in complexity. At one point in time, the human species emerged, with the ability to create culture. This implied, a small interpretation…
Categorie: English
Before I started thinking about evolution and education I did research on evolution and theology. Read reports and reflections on that research here.
Science, Religion and Theology: Two Lumberjacks and a Carpenter?
I think we could see both religion and science as a lumberjack, delivering tree trunks as the raw material for theology, the carpenter, to make pieces of furniture with, turning a building, i.e. the world, into a house, i.e. a habitable place. The tree trunks are the results of either scientific research, like theories, data analyses,…
About Pigeon Holes
I have been writing on this blog on and off for more than a year now. Unfortunately, I never managed to get myself to publish regularly. In an attempt to change that, I turned to 750words.com. My writing will start there, every day. And some of that writing will be published here. What will I…
Hefner: Relocation of the God-question
I just finished reading an older article by Philip Hefner: Relocation of the God-question.: EBSCOhost, first published in Zygon, in 1970. The article is interesting because Hefner argues why theology should take (evolutionary) science into account. First, he discusses Paul Tillich’s way of framing the God-question. Through his methodology of “the ultimate concern“, Hefner explains, Tillich was…
Hefner on Meaning Making
What do we want to accomplish by bringing theology and science together? Lutheran theologian Philip Hefner offers us an answer in an article of just over ten years ago[1]. In this blogpost I summarize the main points of the article. Hefner argues that the significance of the interaction between science and theology lies in the meaning…
Schillebeeckx on Religion and Science: Beyond Opposition
I presented my paper on Schillebeeckx and the perspectives he offers on the relation between evolutionary accounts of religion and theology. The audience was rather small in numbers, but I received some excellent questions and feedback. This is the presentation I used to present the paper (link) Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires…
Philip Hefner on Experience
This blogpost offers a summary and review of “Theology and Science: Engaging the Richness of Experience“. Philip Hefner argues that the significance of the relation between science and theology is to be found in the meaning that emerges from this relation. This meaning is both expressed and recreated through language. Hefner sees theology’s role as interpretative….
John F. Haught on a Metaphysics of the Future
John Haught’s delightful book “God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution” offers many ideas. Although I do not fully agree with all of them – I am a bit reluctant about the Whiteheadian threads in some of Haught’s proposals – I think Haught does a tremendous job in showing how theology could be in consonance with…
Short quote: Barbour on religious pluralism
If we accept a genuine religious pluralism, we can respect the distinctive character of the historic traditions and learn from one another as well as from nature. Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science. Historical and Contemporary Issues. A Revised and Expanded Edition of Religion in an Age of Science, Londen, SCM Press Ltd, 1998, p…
Six Books That Shaped My Research
Tom Uytterhoeven One of the benefits of working at my faculty is that my office is located in – yes, as in physically part of – one of the largest theological libraries in the world. Reading has become a true adventure, leading to ever more new findings (sometimes it is not so much the…