Is There a Distinctive Human Nature? Approaching the Question from a Christian Epistemic Base

Interpretations of human nature driven by scientific analyses of the origin and development of the human species often assume metaphysical naturalism. This generates restrictive and distortive accounts of key facets of human life and ethics. It fails to make sense of human altruism, and it operates...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zygon
Main Author: Torrance, Alan J. 1956- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2012
In: Zygon
Further subjects:B evolutionary theism
B Metaphysical naturalism
B Christology
B Human Nature
B Altruism
B Religious Pluralism
B human uniqueness
B Evolutionary Biology
B Eschatology
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Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Interpretations of human nature driven by scientific analyses of the origin and development of the human species often assume metaphysical naturalism. This generates restrictive and distortive accounts of key facets of human life and ethics. It fails to make sense of human altruism, and it operates within a wider philosophical framework that lacks explanatory power. The accounts of theistic evolution that seek to redress this, however, too easily fail to take sufficient account of the unique contribution of interpretations from a specifically Christian epistemic base. The latter involve a Christological and, hence, eschatological approach which is intrinsic to the interpretation of human nature in light of the purpose and intentionality of the Creator. Phenomenological approaches to the nature of humanity lack the categories to distinguish between human nature as the object of divine intentionality and its present dysfunctional and, ultimately, subhuman state.
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2012.01303.x