Q&A SERIES Q: What Does a Theology of Evolution Mean? A: In his attempt of making sense of evolution, from the Christian perspective, or what he calls cosmic drama of life, John F. Haught writes, Let me propose a tentative Christian theological reading, just as a modest point of departure note: First, of the fact that the general drift of life has been in the direction of increasing complexity, consciousness, and freedom. And the movement of evolution toward such outcomes has occurred without any suspension of the set of grammatical constraints that go by the name of natural selection. Second, theology may attest that in its overall advance, what this drama is about is the liberation of nature from an endless imprisonment in lifeless and mindless determinism. Third, since the God of boundless love revealed in Jesus influences nature by way of attraction rather than force, a Christian theology of evolution may assume that God enlivens and gives meaning to the world not by pushing it forward from the past, but by calling it into the freshness of an always new future. And fourth, the purpose of the evolutionary drama consists, at the very minimum, of the intensification of creations beauty, a beauty that, to Christian faith, is everlastingly sustained and patterned anew within the life of God. _______________________________________ **Excerpts from Chapter 6, Direction, of the book, Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life, by John F. Haught, 73.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 06:32:15 +0000
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