Showing papers in "Zygon in 2018"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the problem of "eco-anxiety" by integrating results from numerous fields of inquiry and argue that this situation causes the need to frame climate change narratives as emphasizing hope in the midst of tragedy.
Abstract: This article addresses the problem of “eco-anxiety” by integrating results from numerous fields of inquiry. While climate change may cause direct psychological and existential impacts, already now vast numbers of people experience indirect impacts in forms of depression, socio-ethical paralysis, and loss of wellbeing. This is not always evident, because people have in response developed psychological and social defenses, including “socially constructed silence.” I argue that this situation causes the need to frame climate change narratives as emphasizing hope in the midst of tragedy. Framing the situation simply as a threat or a possibility does not work. Religious communities and the use of methods which include spirituality have an important role in enabling people to process their deep emotions and existential questions. I draw also from my experiences from Finland in enabling co-operation between natural scientists and theologians in order to address climate issues.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the John Templeton Foundation's grant number 59023 to support the work of the authors of this paper. But they did not specify the grant number.
Abstract: Funding for this research was provided by the John Templeton Foundation, grant number 59023
18 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify a series of six major building blocks that form a foundation for religious capacity in genus Homo and identify the time periods for these building blocks based on findings from modern cognitive science, neuroscience, genomic science, the new cognitive archaeology, and traditional stones-and-bones archaeology.
Abstract: Intrigued by the possible paths that the evolution of religious capacity may have taken, the authors identify a series of six major building blocks that form a foundation for religious capacity in genus Homo. Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens idaltu are examined for early signs of religious capacity. Then, after an exploration of human plasticity and why it is so important, the analysis leads to a final building block that characterizes only Homo sapiens sapiens, beginning 200,000–400,000 years ago, when all the other cognitive and neurological underpinnings gradually came together. Because the timing of cognitive evolution has become an issue, the authors identify the time periods for these building blocks based on findings from modern cognitive science, neuroscience, genomic science, the new cognitive archaeology, and traditional stones-and-bones archaeology. The result is a logical, and even a likely story 55–65 million years long, which leads to the evolution of religious capacity in modern human beings.
12 citations
10 citations
10 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that Ayudha Puja normalizes Brahminical Hinduism within scientific culture through the inclusion of non-Hindus and through scientists' description of the festival as "cultural" rather than "religious".
Abstract: Ayudha Puja, a South Indian festival translated as “worship of the machines,” is a dramatic example of how religion and science intertwine in political life. Across South India, but especially in the state of Karnataka, scientists and engineers celebrate the festival in offices, laboratories, and workshops by attending a puja led by a priest. Although the festival is noteworthy in many ways, one of its most immediate valences is political. In this article, we argue that Ayudha Puja normalizes Brahminical Hinduism within scientific culture through the inclusion of non-Hindus and through scientists' description of the festival as “cultural” rather than “religious.”
8 citations
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the Exeter theologian invokes the Theology of the Cross in its second manifestation, that is, we learn from the cross of Jesus Christ that God is present to nonhuman as well as human victims of predation and extinction.
Abstract: Did the God of the Bible create a Darwinian world in which violence and suffering (disvalue) are the means by which the good (value) is realized? This is Christopher Southgate’s insightful and dramatic formulation of the theodicy problem. In addressing this problem, the Exeter theologian rightly invokes the Theology of the Cross in its second manifestation, that is, we learn from the cross of Jesus Christ that God is present to nonhuman as well as human victims of predation and extinction. God co-suffers with creatures in their despair, abandonment, physical suffering, and death. What I will add with more force than Southgate is this: the Easter resurrection is a prolepsis of the eschatological new creation, and it is God’s new creation which retroactively determines past creation. Although this does not eliminate the theodicy question, it lessens its moral sting.
6 citations
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors used Southgate's work and engagement with other scholars on the topic of evolutionary theodicy as a case study in the dialogue of science and Christian theology to draw conclusions about the range and limits of fruitful methodological possibilities for dialogues between science and faith.
Abstract: This article uses Christopher Southgate’s work and engagement with other scholars on the topic of evolutionary theodicy as a case study in the dialogue of science and Christian theology. A typology is outlined of ways in which the voices of science and the Christian tradition may be related in a science-theology dialogue, and examples of each position on the typology are given from the literature on evolution and natural evil. The main focus is on Southgate’s evolutionary theodicy and the alternative proposal by Neil Messer. By bringing these two accounts into dialogue, some key methodological issues are brought into focus, enabling some conclusions to be drawn about the range and limits of fruitful methodological possibilities for dialogues between science and Christian theology.
TL;DR: Conradie as mentioned in this paper discusses the relationship between social evil and what is called natural “evil.” Theologically, this centers around an understanding of creation and fall, and argues that Southgate typically treats soteriology and eschatology as themes pertaining to an evolutionary theodicy, whereas an adequate ecotheology would discuss the problem of natural suffering under the narrative of God's economy.
Abstract: In this contribution, the author engages in a conversation with Christopher Southgate on the relationship between social evil and what is called natural “evil.” Theologically, this centers around an understanding of creation and fall. It is argued that Southgate typically treats soteriology and eschatology as themes pertaining to an evolutionary theodicy, whereas an adequate ecotheology would discuss the problem of natural suffering under the rubric of the narrative of God’s economy. The question is then how that story is best told. To start a conversation In November 2008 (or thereabouts), Christopher Southgate came to New York City for a poetry event. He was invited by Wentzel van Huyssteen to visit his postgraduate seminar at Princeton Theological Seminary to discuss with the students The Groaning of Creation that had been published earlier that year. I was a fellow at the Center for Theological Inquiry at the time and also attended that seminar. In the discussion, I made a little list of various root causes of (human) suffering (see below) and asked Southgate which of these should be regarded as primary. If suffering manifests itself as symptom at the surface level, how can the underlying problem be diagnosed? What, then, should be the main target to be addressed by the Christian message of salvation in Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit? Here is the list (as I polished it up later —see Conradie 2013b, 19–20): 1. The recognition of the role played by randomness and contingency in a world that is less perfectly Platonic than some may have wished? 2. Entropy and the arrow of time implying the transience of everything in the universe (including stars, planets, continents, mountains, rivers, species, and living organisms)? The destructive forces of gravity? 3. The pre-programmed limited life cycle of multicellular organisms and their cells (planned obsolescence)? 4. The very basis of biological functioning in terms of living organisms absorbing inorganic materials (for humans: eating organic leftovers such as seeds, fruits, and nuts)? 5. Eating living organic material (plants)? Eating other living organisms (meat)? (see Conradie 2016) 6. Illness, faltering health, aging, degeneration, and the decay of possibilities?
TL;DR: In this paper, a new Order of the Sacred Earth (OSBE) is proposed to gather persons of whatever spiritual tradition or none to devote themselves to preserving Mother Earth. But it does not address the problem of climate change.
Abstract: This exploration into spirituality and climate change employs the “Four Paths” of the Creation Spirituality tradition. The author recognizes those paths in the rich teachings of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si (Part I) and applies them in considering the nobility of the scientist’s vocation (Part III). Pre-modern thinkers often resisted any split between science and religion (Part III). Part IV lays out the basic archetypes for recognizing the Sacredness of Creation, namely the Cosmic Christ (Christianity); the Buddha Nature (Buddhism); the Image of God (Judaism); the “Primordial Man” (Hinduism) as well as the pre-modern universal teaching of “God as Beauty.” Part V addresses the subject of Evil which deserves serious attention in the face of the realities posed by climate change. In Part VI the author speaks of a new Order of the Sacred Earth that is being launched in Fall 2017 to gather persons of whatever spiritual tradition or none to devote themselves to preserving Mother Earth.
TL;DR: In this paper, a massive phytoplankton bloom was observed north of the Bering Strait, between Russia and the United States, underneath pack ice that was a meter thick.
Abstract: A striking example is presented of a newly observed phenomenon in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean that appears to be a consequence of changes in the physical forcing. In summer 2011, a massive phytoplankton bloom was observed north of the Bering Strait, between Russia and the United States, underneath pack ice that was a meter thick—in conditions previously thought to be inconducive for harboring such blooms. It is demonstrated that the changing ice cover, in concert with the resulting heat exchange between the atmosphere and ocean, likely led to this paradigm shift at the base of the food chain by altering the supply of nutrients and sunlight. Such earlyseason under-ice blooms have the potential to profoundly alter the Arctic food web.
TL;DR: This paper proposed a fourfold response to the suffering of nonhuman creation that parallels Southgate's compound theodicy in its similarities and differences, in the spirit of a tribute to Christopher Southgate.
Abstract: Christopher Southgate proposes that a theological response to the suffering that is built into an evolutionary world requires a compound evolutionary theodicy, made up of four interrelated theological positions This article proposes a fourfold response to the suffering of nonhuman creation that parallels Southgate's compound theodicy In its similarities and differences, it is offered in the spirit of a tribute to Christopher Southgate