Alone in the World?In Alone in the World? -- first given as the 2004 Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh -- J. Wentzel van Huyssteen develops the interdisciplinary dialogue that he set out in The Shaping of Rationality (1999), applying this methodology to the uncharted waters between theological anthropology and paleoanthropology. Among other things, van Huyssteen argues that scientific notions of human uniqueness help us to ground theological notions of human distinctiveness in flesh-and-blood, embodied experiences and protect us from overly complex theological abstractions regarding the "image of God." Focusing on the interdisciplinary problem of human origins and distinctiveness, van Huyssteen accesses the origins of the embodied human mind through the spectacular prehistoric cave paintings of western Europe, fifteen of which are reproduced in color in this volume. Boldly connecting the widely separated fields of Christian theology and paleoanthropology through careful interdisciplinary reflection, Alone in the World? will encourage sustained investigation into the question of human uniqueness. |
Contents
Human Uniqueness as an Interdisciplinary Problem? | 10 |
Interdisciplinarity in Theology and Science | 19 |
Tradition and Communicative Understanding | 33 |
Interdisciplinarity and Human Uniqueness | 43 |
Conclusion | 48 |
Human Uniqueness and Cognitive Evolution | 54 |
Human Distinctiveness in Paleontology | 56 |
A Human Uniqueness as a Moral Issue | 56 |
Human Uniqueness and Paleoanthropology | 80 |
Imagination and Prehistoric Art | 80 |
Human Imagination and Religious Awareness | 83 |
Conclusion | 92 |
Human Uniqueness and Symbolization | 97 |
Human Uniqueness and Language | 101 |
Human Uniqueness and the Symbolic Mind | 113 |
A Handprints in the Deep Caves Plates 1and 2 | 131 |
B Human Uniqueness and Hominid Evolution | 56 |
Charles Darwin on Human Uniqueness | 56 |
Evolutionary Epistemology and Human Uniqueness | 56 |
A Evolutionary Epistemology as Embodied Epistemology | 56 |
B Evolutionary Epistemology and Religion | 56 |
Conclusion | 59 |
Human Uniqueness and the Image of God | 64 |
Human Uniqueness and the History of the Imago Dei | 69 |
Contemporary Interpretations of the Imago Dei | 80 |
The Imago Dei as Embodied Self | 80 |
Conclusion | 80 |
Human Uniqueness and Human Origins | 80 |
B The Ithyphallic Bird Man from the Shaft in Lascaux Plate 11 | 132 |
C The Wounded Men from Cougnac and PechMerle Plates 3 and 4 | 134 |
Human Uniqueness and Religious Imagination | 141 |
Conclusion | 147 |
Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology | 151 |
Human Uniqueness and Embodiment | 155 |
Human Uniqueness in the Jewish Tradition | 172 |
Human Uniqueness and the Limits of Interdisciplinarity | 179 |
Conclusion | 187 |
Bibliography | 206 |
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Alone in the World?: Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen No preview available - 2012 |