Christianity in Evolution: An Exploration
Contents:
Evolution has provided a new understanding of reality, with revolutionary consequences for Christianity.
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In an evolutionary perspective the incarnation involved God entering the evolving human species to help it imitate the trinitarian altruism in whose image it was created and counter its tendency to self-absorption. Primarily, however, the evolutionary achievement of Jes Evolution has provided a new understanding of reality, with revolutionary consequences for Christianity.
Primarily, however, the evolutionary achievement of Jesus was to confront and overcome death in an act of cosmic significance, ushering humanity into the culminating stage of its evolutionary destiny, the full sharing of God's inner life. Previously such doctrines as original sin, the fall, sacrifice, and atonement stemmed from viewing death as the penalty for sin and are shown not only to have serious difficulties in themselves, but also to emerge from a Jewish culture preoccupied with sin and sacrifice that could not otherwise account for death.
The death of Jesus on the cross is now seen as saving humanity, not from sin, but from individual extinction and meaninglessness. Death is now seen as a normal process that affect all living things and the religious doctrines connected with explaining it in humans are no longer required or justified. Similar evolutionary implications are explored affecting other subjects of Christian belief, including the Church, the Eucharist, priesthood, and moral behavior.
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To ask other readers questions about Christianity in Evolution , please sign up. For it shows, for once, Christianity looking forward in partnership with the modern world of science, rather than holding itself aloof and apart in a time warp. The only other sacrament which appears to require re-evaluation as a result of accepting evolution is that of sacred orders, or priesthood. In conclusion, what I have tried to explore in my book and briefly summarise in this lecture is the impact of evolution on traditional Christian beliefs, in other words, construct a theology of evolution. The death of Jesus on the cross is now seen as saving humanity, not from sin, but from individual extinction and meaninglessness. A Poor Alternative 5. His carefully crafted assessment of various evolutionary accounts of morality for Christian ethics is a gem of concise analysis.
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Mahoney proposes that biological evolution could ultimately have a positive impact on our understanding of Christian doctrines. Nor was this done by the offering of Christ as an expiatory sacrifice to placate an injured God; it was achieved by Christ freely confronting death and winning through to a new phase of existence to be imparted to his fellow humans in their evolutionary destiny to share fully in the life of God.
Whether you agree with him or not, Mahoney builds a case for his position.
Theologians are going to be busy for a long time. Mahoney's passion for his work, however, is evident, which makes Christianity in Evolution a stimulating, if sometimes infuriating, read. For it shows, for once, Christianity looking forward in partnership with the modern world of science, rather than holding itself aloof and apart in a time warp. It provides a very good historical review of various dogmas before reinterpreting each dogma in the light of scientific evolution.
I do not know of any other work that does this so thoroughly. Coyne, SJ , president, Vatican Observatory Foundation "This challenging and readable book is the work of a scholar who is theologically well-informed, aware of previous and contemporary discussions of the need for theological development in view of evolutionary science, and skillful in suggesting alternatives to traditional formulations of Christian teaching.
Christianity in Evolution: An Exploration
Mahoney's work should stimulate much fruitful theological discussion. Haught , senior fellow in science and religion, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University "Jack Mahoney's Christianity in Evolution presents a courageous and intellectually honest attempt to face the theological implications of the undeniable fact of human evolution. His carefully crafted assessment of various evolutionary accounts of morality for Christian ethics is a gem of concise analysis. His novel way of highlighting the altruistic dimensions of the imago Dei, Jesus' command of neighbor-love, and Trinitarian communion challenges Christian ethicists to take more seriously the theological basis of their discipline.
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Building on this, I have developed a Christian theology of altruism, explaining that for Christians the prime source of all generosity is to be found in God, where it begins with the mutual altruism of the persons in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, towards each other. It is in the image of this divine mutual altruism that the human species is created Gen 1: In this they are invited to follow the example of Jesus, who, in the words of Paul, is the image of God Col 1: This altruistic leadership given by Jesus to his fellow-humans, however, is by no means the only, or even the main, purpose of the incarnation viewed in an evolutionary framework.
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It has been a serious weakness of some even Christian thinkers to regard Jesus as merely an outstanding moral exemplar to be imitated by others, like Socrates or Ghandi, whereas the primary evolutionary achievement of Jesus, I argue, was vastly more than that. It was something which he uniquely brought about, entering the human species and confronting death, the universal evolutionary experience of all living things.
In overcoming his own death and rising from the dead Jesus performed an act of cosmic significance: As one examines this interconnected cluster of traditional Christian doctrines, one central element which emerges clearly is the universal message of the New Testament that Jesus died to save us from our sins, which is not at all the same as the evolutionary proposal I have outlined that Jesus died to save us, not from sin but from death.
Yet there is an intriguing connection between original sin as it figures in the Bible and the human experience of death.
Christianity in Evolution
Why should the human intelligent beings created by a loving God die, as they obviously and inevitably did? Much later the Book of Wisdom was to point out 2: With the development, however, of a theory of evolution, the death of all living things, not just humans, is recognised as part of the process of ongoing creation through the survival of the fittest.
Consequently, there is no further need to conjecture another explanation for human death, as we find in the traditional doctrine of its being a punishment for an original sin committed by our protoparents. In addition to there being no further need to postulate those traditional Christian beliefs in original sin and the fall of human nature, as well as the belief in the death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice to restore the friendship between God and his fallen human creatures, it is also widely recognised, moreover, that over the centuries serious inherent difficulties have been experienced concerning those beliefs themselves.
I have explored this in detail in my book, but it must suffice in this lecture to offer just two important instances. Writing to the Christians in Rome, Paul was at pains to establish in Romans 5: As the renowned patristic scholar, J.
The second major instance I want to mention of the serious difficulties and questioning arising from the traditional network of Christian beliefs starting with original sin and ending in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, relates to the theology of satisfaction which was developed to explain how Jesus became man to restore the friendship between God and his fallen human creatures. A more intellectually respectable theory was proposed in the eleventh century by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, which removed the Devil from the scene and concentrated on a legal argument based on justice.
Anselm maintained that there was a need to make restitution to God for the massive dishonour and injustice which had been committed against him by the first humans in disobeying his divine command. Of course, once one dispenses with the belief in original sin and fallen human nature as biblically unwarranted, there is no further need to devise a way of remedying it.
In his famous contribution to modern theology, the need for demythologization, Rudolf Bultmann highlighted the need to move away today from the outdated mythology which was developed in a pre-scientific age to proclaim the Word of God. It contrived to do this by mythologizing death, turning it from a physical puzzle which they were at a loss to account for into a religious myth; and this was carried over into Christianity.
We can therefore de-mythologize death, and dispense with the need to postulate a divinely inflicted punishment for an initial act of human disobedience. As a consequence we can also dismantle the massive theological structure which has resulted from the mythologizing of death, including: The consequences of accepting evolution can also be identified on other traditional Christian beliefs, including the doctrines relating to the Church, the Sacraments and Christian morality. Beginning with the Church, the evolutionary achievement of Jesus as incarnate God, as I have explained, was to confront and defeat death, and so usher the human species into a new phase of existence surviving death with him.
This community of humans in the process of being saved from death by Jesus is what we understand as the Church, the human species raised to a new level of existence and moral activity as an eschatological community of humans, already existing now but to be fulfilled in the afterlife. Moving to consider the impact of evolution on the Christian sacraments, and beginning with the Eucharist, quite apart from arguing on evolutionary grounds as I have done to dispense with the need for recourse to expiatory sacrifice to atone for the alleged fall of humanity, a detailed study of the four New Testament accounts of the Last Supper as the origin of the sacrament of the Eucharist does not bear out the view that it took the form of a propitiatory sacrifice, as the Council of Trent maintained against the Reformers; and analysis of the documents of Trent itself throws doubt on the force of its own argument in defence of the sacrificial aspect of the Mass.
The only other sacrament which appears to require re-evaluation as a result of accepting evolution is that of sacred orders, or priesthood. In the light of dispensing with the idea of sacrifice, priesthood can develop, as intimated by the Second Vatican Council, more in terms of Eucharistic and pastoral leadership within the evolutionary community.