A CHRISTIAN PHENOMENOLOGICAL CULTURE: A "New to You" Matrix

Tangaza University College, 2005

This essay is an attempt to understand the scientific evidence that organic evolution is a fact as pointed out by Pope John Paul II in his recent statement in (1996). It is an opportunity for me to see how religious thought about creation and evolution is presently conceived; given the past traditional understanding that species were created and fixed once and for all in God’s creative activity, which presupposed that evolution could not take place. In the past organic evolution had made very little impression upon many areas of human knowledge, and more so in theology. But presently there is attention of many theologians from different religious faiths that has increased considerably on the question of the origins of the universe and its dynamism to the future. The fact of organic evolution is apparently becoming clearer with the evidence varying from one discipline of knowledge to the other. The organic evolution embraces a principle of novelty at work, which integrates its past into the present, and is directed to the future. Following this awareness, then, there is a profound link and unity between creation as a reality and evolution as a reality, that both are open to the future dimensions of beings. And this is the link and unity I focus on in this essay. In chapter one therefore, I start by defining the essential terms ‘Creation’ and ‘Creationism’ that will carry us throughout in this work, as we look how creation is envisioned from the Christian theological context. In doing this, I focus first of all on the Old Testament, to see what the biblical narratives on creation say, particularly (Gen 1-2). Then, what follows is the way creation was perceived in the Old Testament Prophetic and Wisdom literature. I conclude this chapter by looking at the Christian understanding of creation particularly in the New Testament, which has handed over a strong biblical traditional inheritance to the present Christian theological vision of creation. My aim in this chapter is not to criticise or interpret anything, but to see how this notion of creation emerged in the general Christian context. In chapter two, my attention goes on the scientific understanding about creation. I start by defining the essential scientific terms of ‘Evolutionism’ and ‘Scientific Creationism’. I then look at the notion of microevolution and macroevolution in which scientific evolutionists argue that evolution takes place or occurs along these lines of change. From that we see how evolution that is quite evidenced in these dimensions of microevolution and macroevolution is becoming part and parcel in the religious/theological circles and faiths. My focus here is on how believers and those who happen to be both believers and scientists, approach this idea of creation as God’s exclusive activity. Because, presently, creation is quite inseparable with the way God’s creative activity is perceived as continuous in evolution. And this brings us to the way the integrity of God’s creation ought to be, as human beings understand it presently, both from religious and scientific points of view. In the last chapter, I look at how human beings, presently, understand themselves as the summit of God’s creation, which is basically from the Christian perspective. This leads us to the contrasting message that is powerfully coming from ecological theology with the argument against human dominance and control in the entire creation of God as experienced in the modern world. That is, the issue of ‘Anthropic Principle’ that finds its support more clearly in the first account of creation narrative (Gen 1:28-30). This entire theological perception is summed up by the general theological outlook of how we can perceive God from both religious/theological and scientific points of view without unnecessary antagonistic relations. Because, our God as a God of mutual relations in the Trinity is our very God in an evolving universe. Finally, I give a short summary and some concluding remarks. This is followed by a bibliographical reference indicating my sources of research on this essay.

The paper outlines human religiousness based on the human capability of selftranscendence featuring rites, myths, ethics and mysticism

2018

The dissertation will analyse the claims of the naturalist position which has been employed in the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR, hereafter). This reductionist approach has implications for the methodologies religious anthropologists and ethnographers use when collecting observational data. This viewpoint contends that the persistence of religion is due to evolutionary psychological factors. Notwithstanding, there have been critics from the Religious Studies discipline who pose important questions concerning the CSR’s reductionist approach. This dilemma has generated important questions whether there are epistemological components in religious practice which challenges the CSR’s approach. For example, Heidegger’s existential phenomenology can be seen in the existential encounter when considering death. When an individual considers their own mortality a set of epistemological properties are generated that challenges the normative function of being. Through this encounter, oblivion is encountered by individuals who begin to exist outside of the fabric of culture. Subsequently, their onto – theology is destroyed when a person encounters death. Therefore, notions of the divine are engaged with which are designed to bring individuals back into the world. This thesis contends that existential phenomena such as, death are significant in how individuals operate within social structures. Therefore, while the CSR's materialist approach provides an important perspective regarding the origin of religious rituals, there are phenomenological limitations to such an eliminative reductionist approach. The landmark works of de Martino and Heidegger demonstrate that existentialism is a significant aspect to the cognitive construct of the world. It is advisable for scholars within the natural sciences who subscribe to a physicalist perspective to consider phenomenological insights into how individuals approach death by engaging in social actions that signify not only the end of their life but also the end of their world.

2009

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO RELIGION, 2022

The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to religion. The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting and emerging field. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the handbook pulls together scholarship in the following areas: • evolutionary psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR) • cultural evolution • the complementarity of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science and cultural evolution. Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including: Cliodynamics, cultural group selection, costly signaling, dual inheritance theory, literacy, transmitting narratives, prosociality, supernatural punishment, cognition and ritual, meme theory, fusion theory, sexual selection, agency detection, evoked culture, social brain hypothesis, theory of mind, developmental psychology, emergence theory, social learning, cultural cybernetics, cultural epidemiology, evolutionary and cultural psychology, memetics, by-product and adaptationist theories of religion, systems and information theory, and computer modeling. This Handbook is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and anthropology. It will also be very useful to those in related fields, such as psychology, sociology of religion, cognitive biology, and evolutionary biology.

2005