On Tuesday, November 7th, I successfully defended my dissertation on the relevance of evolutionary studies of religion for theology. With that, a period of fifteen years came to a close, a period in which I studied theology, for the better part in combination with a full-time job as a teacher. So the defense was a…
Tag: Philip Hefner
Making is Finding. A Poem on Theological Anthropology by Alan Nordstrom
One of the most important theological resources for my PhD-research is Philip Hefner’s theological-anthropological work, mainly his concept of ‘created co-creator’. Perhaps one of the most captivating introductions to this concept has been written by Alan Nordstrom, in his poem ‘Making is Finding’. It has been published in Zygon, just over ten years ago, as…
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,…
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….
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…
To the extent that we do not know the circumstances of origin and the original functions of religion, we do not understand our symbols, myths, and rituals.
(Philip Hefner, The Human Factor, p. 159) Just a thought for those who believe evolutionary explanations of religion are irrelevant, or even threatening, for theology.
Cultural Evolution and a Rubber Band
– Tom Uytterhoeven – I disagree with two points in this article on biological, cultural, and technological evolution: (1) it suggests that biological, cultural and technological evolution are separate processes, while I see them as deeply connected; (2) it suggests cultural evolution/history must be read as the emergence of different 'stages', leading to ever greater…
Can “Spirit” Be a Verb?
I have been reading Philip Hefner’s work for a while now – not a big surprise, since his work is a major part of my dissertation – but until now I did not know he had his own WordPress blog. So I am reblogging this just to share my little discovery in the first place….