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This stimulating and wide-ranging book mounts a profound enquiry into some of the most pressing questions of our age, by examining the relationship between biological science and Christianity. The history of biological discovery is explored from the point of view of a leading philosopher and ethicist. What effect should modern biological theory and practice have on Christian understanding of ethics? How much of that theory and practice should Christians endorse? Can Christians, for example, agree that biological changes are not governed by transcendent values, or that there are no clear or essential boundaries between species? To what extent can 'Nature' set our standards? Professor Clark takes a reasoned look at biological theory since Darwin and argues that an orthodox Christian philosophy is better able to accommodate the truth of such theory than is the sort of progressive, meliorist interpretation of Christian doctrine which is usually offered as the properly 'modern' option.
List of contents
1. The development of Darwinian theory; 2. Moral and metaphysical assumptions; 3. Trying to live in nature; 4. The biology of sin; 5. Human identities; 6. The goals of goodness; 7. The end of humanity; 8. The covenant with all living creatures; 9. Conclusion. Cosmos and beyond.
About the author
STEPHEN R. L. CLARK is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, and an honorary research fellow in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. At present, he is concerned mainly with the development of Neo-Platonic philosophy, the understanding and treatment of non-human animals, and the varieties of neurodiversity. His most recent publications relevant to these themes include How to Live Forever (1995), G. K .Chesterton: Thinking Backwards, Looking Forwards (2006), Philosophical Futures (2011), Can We Believe in People: Human Significance in an Interconnected Cosmos (2020), and How the Worlds Became: Philosophy and the Oldest Stories (2023).
Summary
This stimulating and wide-ranging book mounts a profound enquiry into some of the most pressing questions of our age, by examining the relationship between biological science and Christianity. The history of biological discovery is explored from the point of view of a leading philosopher and ethicist.
