Tonight I was at the 2016 Boyle lecture in St Mary-le-Bow given by Professor Sarah Coakley, the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College. This annual lecture series addresses topics which explore the relationship between Christianity and our contemporary understanding of the natural world.
Coakley's lecture was entitled 'Natural Theology in a Changed Key? Evolution, Cooperation and the God Question'. She writes: 'The latter part of the 20th century saw a revulsion against classic forms of "natural theology" which was propelled as much by theological fashion as by secular scientific resistance. This lecture lays out a cautious case for the reconsideration of a new style of "natural theology". It does so in the light of remarkable new discoveries in mathematicalized accounts of evolutionary "cooperation" which significantly challenge the idea of pervasive randomness in evolutionary processes. The ethical and teleological questions which are raised by these cooperative phenomena, it is argued, demand some sort of meaning-making response and ultimately metaphysical issues cannot be shirked. The question of God is reconsidered in this context, with a surprising final twist to the argument in which the human epistemic subject is itself drawn towards an invited transformation.'
She spoke about five different evolutionary mechanisms, identified by Martin A. Nowak, 'in which 'cooperation' can be shown to be favoured in repeated choices.' She, therefore, attributes 'certain forms of patterned and pervasive cooperative structure to different levels of the evolutionary spectrum', particularly those 'which arise in intentionally-motivated higher-mammal cooperation and human altruism.' To do so, is to make philosophical proposals about the fundamental nature of evolution's dynamics. Doing so, equates to the contemplative practice outlined by Origen of seeing existence as-a-whole; which, necessarily, 'is no longer strictly evolutionary science nor yet philosophy of science.'
Coakley is helpfully suggesting that the existence of cooperation in the dynamics of evolution is both a corrective to explanations of evolution predicated on selfish genes and a prompt towards a more holistic contemplative of evolution and its processes. What she proposes is 'a unified spiritual thought-experiment evoked precisely by critical reflection on evolutionary cooperation and its ethical and metaphysical meanings.' This is a profoundly helpful and hopeful proposal; one which, she notes, 'may itself evince a new creative posture of hope.'
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George Harrison - What Is Life?
Showing posts with label university of cambridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university of cambridge. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Monday, 16 July 2012
Sparking off new developments
In a recent interview Peter Heslam has discussed his Cambridge multidisciplinary project, “Transforming Business," the value of entrepreneurship, thinking about enterprise solutions to poverty, and the wisdom of Abraham Kuyper and John Wesley when helping us think about the current economic crisis and recovery in light of the value of thrift, magnanimity and magnificence. The interview can be read at http://www.epsociety.org/userfiles/Interview%20with%20Peter%20Heslam%204.pdf.
In it he gives an interesting summary of the significance of Abraham Kuyper:
"Kuyper dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and during his career he achieved positions of eminence in a number of different fields. As a scholar he established himself early in his career as an academic theologian and provided the chief impetus towards the founding of the Free University, a university in Amsterdam with a Christian constitution. As a journalist he founded a daily newspaper, and remained its chief editor for almost fifty years. As a politician he organized the Anti-Revolutionary Party, a Christian-based popular people‟s party, and remained its leader for some forty years, during which time he served a four-year term as Prime Minister. As a writer of devotional and religious literature he launched a weekly religious journal, and published scores of meditations and works of applied and pastoral theology. As a church reformer he led a revival of orthodox faith within the national church and later established a new confederation of Reformed Churches, which has vast numbers of sister churches all over the world.
Taken together, his achievements indicate that he enjoyed a distinguished and multi-faceted career. But what is most striking about his career is that in virtually every area of his activity he sparked off new developments. His establishment, for instance, of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in 1879 along modern, democratic lines, signalled the end of liberal domination in Dutch politics and helped to make way for the rise of a more democratic and representative form of government based on modern party organization. Likewise, his founding of the Free University the following year, stimulated the proliferation of a great number of social and educational institutions founded on Christian principles."
For more on Kuyper, read Heslam's book Creating a Christian Worldview:Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, published by Eerdmans.
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Paul Weller - Man Of Great Promise.
In it he gives an interesting summary of the significance of Abraham Kuyper:
"Kuyper dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and during his career he achieved positions of eminence in a number of different fields. As a scholar he established himself early in his career as an academic theologian and provided the chief impetus towards the founding of the Free University, a university in Amsterdam with a Christian constitution. As a journalist he founded a daily newspaper, and remained its chief editor for almost fifty years. As a politician he organized the Anti-Revolutionary Party, a Christian-based popular people‟s party, and remained its leader for some forty years, during which time he served a four-year term as Prime Minister. As a writer of devotional and religious literature he launched a weekly religious journal, and published scores of meditations and works of applied and pastoral theology. As a church reformer he led a revival of orthodox faith within the national church and later established a new confederation of Reformed Churches, which has vast numbers of sister churches all over the world.
Taken together, his achievements indicate that he enjoyed a distinguished and multi-faceted career. But what is most striking about his career is that in virtually every area of his activity he sparked off new developments. His establishment, for instance, of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in 1879 along modern, democratic lines, signalled the end of liberal domination in Dutch politics and helped to make way for the rise of a more democratic and representative form of government based on modern party organization. Likewise, his founding of the Free University the following year, stimulated the proliferation of a great number of social and educational institutions founded on Christian principles."
For more on Kuyper, read Heslam's book Creating a Christian Worldview:Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, published by Eerdmans.
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Paul Weller - Man Of Great Promise.
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