Chosen from among the Animals: The End of Human Uniqueness and the Election of the Image of God (2011)
Moritz, Joshua M. (Author)
Graduate Theological Union
Peters, Ted
Edition Details: Advisor: Peters, Ted.
Physical Details: 625 pp.
Language: English
The guiding theological question for Chosen From Among the Animals is "What does it mean for human beings to be created in the 'image and likeness of God'"? In both popular opinion and the minds of many scientists and academics, the idea of human uniqueness and human superiority has been linked to the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei . Among Christian philosophers and theologians the connection between the unique nature of humans and the divine likeness has similarly been assumed and even systematically argued for. Pursuing what is called the comparative approach to theological anthropology these philosophers and theologians have asked, in what ways is human nature different from the nature of animals and, therefore, like the nature of God ? In contrast to these scholars, in this dissertation I question any concept of the image of God that equates the imago Dei with some characteristic or capacity which presumably makes humans unique--in a non-trivial way--from other animals. To do this I first offer scientific, philosophical, and theological critiques of the notion that humans are unique. Moreover, I demonstrate that the theological understanding of the image of God as based within unique human characteristics has no conceptual monopoly within the Christian theological tradition. I then take both a historical and systematic theological approach to address constructively the matter of the imago Dei . Instead of grounding the imago Dei in human uniqueness (whether biological or ontological), I conclude that the image of God is--exegetically and theologically--best understood in light of the Hebrew theological framework of historical election . Viewing the imago Dei as election incorporates the findings of contemporary biblical studies and takes seriously scientific understandings of both evolutionary continuity and the psychosomatic unity of the human person. The understanding of the imago Dei which I develop resolves many longstanding theological dilemmas such as addressing the central point of contention in the "creation-evolution debate" regarding the relationship between theological understandings of image of God and the scientific discovery of human-animal continuity. Furthermore, my argument offers a theological anthropology which entails robust approaches to environmental and animal ethics.
...MoreDescription Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 72/09, Mar 2012. Proquest Document ID: 875198512.
Similar Citations
Article
Simone Morandini;
(2014)
Rethinking Creation in the Ecological Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB766546462/)
Book
Calloway, Katherine;
(2014)
Natural Theology in the Scientific Revolution: God's Scientists
(/isis/citation/CBB001510026/)
Chapter
Lotti, Brunello;
(2006)
Filosofia naturale e teologia nello Scholium Generale di Newton
(/isis/citation/CBB001024442/)
Article
Eudoxie Delli;
(2020)
Survie et transformations de la littérature hexaémérique. Entre littérature, théologie et philosophie : Le cas de Georges de Pisidie
(/isis/citation/CBB362170677/)
Book
Emanuele Gambetta;
(2023)
Il Teorema di Dio
(/isis/citation/CBB058518438/)
Article
Blank, Andreas;
(2012)
Julius Caesar Scaliger on Plants, Species, and the Ordained Power of God
(/isis/citation/CBB001251572/)
Article
Fraenkel, Carlos;
(2009)
Ḥasdai Crescas on God as the Place of the World and Spinoza's Notion of God as Res Extensa
(/isis/citation/CBB000930649/)
Article
Solís, Carlos;
(2007)
Descartes, el atomista veleidoso, o los indivisibles siempre llaman dos veces
(/isis/citation/CBB001024112/)
Thesis
Sean Babbs;
(2017)
Instruction from the Book of Creation: Animals and Mendicant Preaching in the Thirteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB271720076/)
Thesis
Jacobs, Andrew;
(2009)
The Creative Power of the Future: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Modern Science, and the Metaphysics of Divine Action
(/isis/citation/CBB001562865/)
Article
Daniel D. De Haan;
(2016)
Where Does Avicenna Demonstrate the Existence of God?
(/isis/citation/CBB226556240/)
Book
Craig, William Lane;
(2001)
Time and the Metaphysics of Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB000102011/)
Article
Tomislav Petković;
(2017)
R. J. Bošković as European Scientist and Theologian at Work on the Bridges between Science and Religion. Essay on Bošković's top concept and epistemological interpretation of God
(/isis/citation/CBB204814339/)
Book
Gingerich, Owen;
(2006)
God's Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB000741839/)
Book
Rodney Holder;
(2020)
Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving Forward from Natural Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB969637055/)
Book
Morris, Richard;
(2002)
The Big Questions: Probing the Promise and Limits of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000201900/)
Article
Morus, Iwan Rhys;
(2008)
Newton, Duw a Dawkins
(/isis/citation/CBB001021556/)
Article
Rossiter, Elliot;
(2014)
Locke, Providence, and the Limits of Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001201141/)
Article
Gorham, Geoffrey;
(2013)
The Theological Foundation of Hobbesian Physics: A Defence of Corporeal God
(/isis/citation/CBB001211645/)
Chapter
Loty, Laurent;
(2002)
Mathématiques et théologie: le concours sur l'optimisme de l'Académie de Berlin (1755): collision des degrés de perfection et collusions entre foi, raison, salut, bonheur, grandeurs négatives, morale, économie et politique
(/isis/citation/CBB000700862/)
Be the first to comment!