Description
Book SynopsisIf the Christian God is creator of all things and revealed in Christ to be compassionate love, then how can divine agency in creation be understood in light of the Darwinian assertion that biological warfare undergirds natural selection? The implications are significant for understanding Christian discipleship and ethics if indeed the human is made in God’s image with the capacity for creative or destructive “dominion” over earthly life (Gen. 1:26). To approach this challenge, Simon R. Watson turns to Philip Hefner’s The Human Factor (1993), which identifies the human as created co-creator to investigate themes of freedom and determinism in light of Darwinian evolutionary theory. Hefner’s argument exploring human purpose in light of a beneficence discernible in creation invites a re-examination of Victorian preoccupations with natural teleology. Inspired by Hefner’s work, Watson places Darwin’s The Descent of Man (1871) in conversation with historical and contemporary sources, from William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) to twenty-first century articulations of Wisdom Christology by Denis Edwards and Elizabeth Johnson, to argue that theology can offer a framework of meaning to interpret the facts of nature as revelatory of a Christian God when considered in light of the suffering Christ and an existentially fallen creation.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1 William Paley and Douglas John Hall: The Watchmaker God and the Crucified Christ
Chapter 2 Charles Darwin, Asa Gray, and Aubrey Moore: A Natural History of the Golden Rule
Chapter 3 Philip Hefner’s Risky Teleology: Natural Selection as the Sacrificial Means of a Free Creation
Chapter 4 Denis Edwards and Elizabeth Johnson: A Liberative Sophia
Conclusion: Discerning Christ in Creation
