In the year 1225, a year before his death, Francis of Assisi composed the Canticle of Brother Sun... more In the year 1225, a year before his death, Francis of Assisi composed the Canticle of Brother Sun, a rich lyrical poem in which God is praised through the works of creation. Although the text is relatively simple in composition, the Canticle encompasses a profound inner meaning that transcends creation prima facie, the elements of which comprise the body of praises.1 The Canticle can be identified as a hymn of light composed by one who experienced the true light of God revealed in Christ. Yet, paradoxically, at the time of its composition, Francis was virtually blind, in constant physical pain and approaching the end of his life. The praises of God expressed in the Canticle, therefore, point to a deeper meaning of Francis's life in relationship to God. Since he had already received the stigmata by the time he composed the text, his unique relationship to God can be identified in his conformity to the Crucified. The thesis of this paper is that the Canticle of Brother Sun is a testimony of Francis's mystical union with Christ. It is a cosmic Christie hymn in which Francis, united to Christ, sings of his union with all creation in Christ. The eschatological tone of the hymn resonates the melody of the new paradise in which Christ stands as center and eternal mediator.
There is an age-old saying that captures the sacredness of place where lies our deepest sense of ... more There is an age-old saying that captures the sacredness of place where lies our deepest sense of peace and comfort, of all that we are and strive to be, where memories are drawn and dreams unfold. “Home is where the heart is,” not only speaks to every weary traveler who arrives safely home after a long trip but to anyone who searches for that place in the world where one can truly be oneself. The Franciscan theologian, Bonaventure, captured this idea in his own way when he wrote: “You truly exist where you love not merely where you live.” In other words, you truly are yourself and the fullness of all you can be where you love, and where you love is truly where you live. If loving and living are so united, we may question whether or not we truly love where we live. For we live in creation, in the natural world of created things. Scientists today tell us that creation is our “home,” that we are biologically related to other living forms of life and that, on a broader level, we are joi...
In the Middle Ages, the destiny of the historical process was a subject of intense thought, fuele... more In the Middle Ages, the destiny of the historical process was a subject of intense thought, fueled by an overarching notion of historical change and the impending final age. Of the many theologians who contributed to this discussion none stands out in more colorful form than the Cistercian abbot, Joachim of Fiore (1135–1202). Joachim made his mark by describing history as a process of patterns unfolding according to the relationships of the Trinity. For Joachim, history was an ongoing work of the living God, and he sought to elucidate the innermost mystery of the trinitarian relationships in the working-out of history. The whole process of history, he maintained, was progressing toward a higher spiritual level that would be characterized by the image of the mystical body of Christ in the final age, an age that he held would take place in this world. Although Bonaventure dismissed Joachim early in his academic career as ignorant and simplex, his rise to minister general in an order divided by radical Joachimism may have influenced his view of the abbot's theology. E. Randolph Daniel has shown that Bonaventure borrowed one of Joachim's patterns of history to define his eschatology more clearly in terms of Christocentricity. Like Joachim, Bonaventure held that the final age would take place in this world, and would be characterized by mystical peace. Potential Joachimist influence may also be detected in Bonaventure's Legenda maior.
This paper explores the relationship between Incarnation and extraterrestrial life in view of the... more This paper explores the relationship between Incarnation and extraterrestrial life in view of the question: can extraterrestrials be saved? The Franciscan theology of Bonaventure and Scotus is used to explore “exoChristology” by examining the Incarnation as a theological rather than anthropological event. The primacy of Christ, held by Franciscan theologians, provides an integral relationship between Christ and creation. From this
The question of ecology is fundamentally a question of relatedness. Is the Christian tradition, a... more The question of ecology is fundamentally a question of relatedness. Is the Christian tradition, at once incarnational and other-worldly, responsible for the ecological crisis? This article examines the position of Bonaventure whose unique theologicalphilosophical synthesis leads to a new understanding of created reality, which I term 'kataphysics'. The foundation of kataphysics begins with Bonaventure's understanding of philosophy as a heteronymous discipline, insofar as philosophy is completed and perfected in theology. From this position he develops an understanding of Being as Goodness based on the Trinity. Bonaventure's integral relationship between Trinity and creation leads to an understanding of created reality as essentially good and intrinsically relational. The integral relation between Trinity and creation through the divine Word gives rise to a theological metaphysics; the metaphysical question becomes the christological question and hence a new understanding of created reality, kataphysics, emerges which involves relatedness. It is suggested that kataphysics undergirds a Christian philosophy of nature which has implications for an ecological stance today.
Transhumanism is a cultural and philosophical movement that advocates human enhancement through t... more Transhumanism is a cultural and philosophical movement that advocates human enhancement through technological means. Seeking to eradicate suffering and death and transcend the limits of biology, transhumanists celebrate the power of technology to transform human life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was intrigued by computer technology and its potential to link humankind on a new level of a global mind. He has been labeled a forerunner of transhumanism; however, his theological vision is not about enhancement but transformation. He recognized that suffering and death are invaluable to the emergence of unitive love, exemplified in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Teilhard's vision helps us realize that suffering in nature may appear as erratic and absurd; however, in light of God's kenotic love, suffering is oriented toward freedom and the fullness of love.
The article explores the relationship between theology and metaphysics in the light of Bonaventur... more The article explores the relationship between theology and metaphysics in the light of Bonaventure's theology. His trinitarian theology grounded in self-communicative love and ontology of personhood renders new insight into his metaphysics of Christ the center. The emergence of creation ex amore through the centrality of the divine Word enables Bonaventure to recast metaphysics in terms of love. The import of his metaphysics of love grounded in the centrality of Christ is discussed in view of contemporary Christian life. K ARL RAHNER, ACUTELY AWARE of the modern philosophical impact on metaphysics, claimed that metaphysical reflection is so fundamental to theology that, "should all philosophers declare the death of metaphysics, he would simply create the necessary philosophical tools within his own theology." 1 Rahner was not alone in his conviction. His contemporary Hans Urs von Balthasar said that, if Christian proclamation and theology made claims of absoluteness on everything that is, then its roots must be in both the historical and metaphysical spheres. 2 "Metaphysics," Walter Kasper writes, "is the name given to the science which enquires not about individual beings or realms of being but about being as such and as a whole. Talk about God presupposes the metaphysical question about being and at the same time keeps this question alive." 3 Balthasar viewed philosophical ILIA DELIO, O.S.F., is professor and chair of the Department of Spirituality Studies at the Washington Theological Union, Washington, D.C. Her recent publications indicate her particular interests in Franciscan studies, spirituality, and religion and science:
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Sep 1, 2022
THE HOURS OF THE UNIVERSE: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey by Ilia Delio. Mary... more THE HOURS OF THE UNIVERSE: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey by Ilia Delio. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2021. 242 pages, index. Paperback; $25.00. ISBN: 9781626984035. *In this exquisitely constructed book, Delio reveals the current state of her reflections on the central concern of her life and work: the relationship of God, humanity, and the universe in the context of the evolutionary process. Her unscripted career leading to this publication, narrated in her memoir Birth of a Dancing Star: My Journey from Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian, has exhibited the same sort of development and diversity that she finds woven into the fabric of the universe. A Franciscan sister who began her religious life as a cloistered member of the Carmelite order, Delio earned doctorates in pharmacology and historical theology and has taught at Trinity College, Washington Theological Union, Georgetown University, and Villanova University. Today, she is an award-winning author, best known for her Center for Christogenesis, which seeks to promote dialogue between faith and reason and stimulate a Christian spirituality fully infused with evolutionary consciousness. *Communicating the urgent need and prospects for that kind of spirituality is the burden of this, Delio's twentieth, book. A theology whose starting point is not evolution and the story of the universe, she insists, is a "useless fabrication" (p. xvi). Her work is rich in scriptural references, but the call to restore the book of nature to its primacy as the true first testament in Christianity's sacred canon is one of her signature themes. Though she displays no interest in apologetics or polemics, her basic assumption is the distinctively Catholic principle of the revelatory character of creation, a conviction at odds with the Protestant Reformers' suspicion of natural theology. A robust sacramental imagination permeates the entire book and provides its organizational design. Portraying the universe as the "new monastery" (p. xvii), Delio orders her reflections according to the liturgy of the hours that has structured daily prayer in Christian monastic communities for centuries: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Delio clusters her chapters--along with prologues of original poetry--around these times of contemplation and guides the reader through the prayers of one rotation of the earth and toward what she calls a new synthesis of faith and science. *Delio's thirty-two brief chapters, each a free-standing essay, cover a broad spectrum of topics from the cosmic to the autobiographical--from quantum physics, gravitational waves, and artificial intelligence to the Eucharist during the coronavirus pandemic and the death of her beloved cat Mango. Delio addresses a number of social issues such as racism, consumerism, and homophobia and sets the full scope of her reflections against the backdrop of the threat of climate change. Her main objective is the nurturing of a Christianity mature enough to match the achievements and insights of contemporary science. In this effort, her primary dialogue partners include interfaith scholar Beatrice Bruteau, Passionist priest and self-styled geologian Thomas Berry, Hindu-Catholic mystic Raimon Panikkar, and luminaries from her elected Franciscan tradition such as Saint Francis, Bonaventure, and the contemporary spiritual writer and retreat leader Richard Rohr. Pope Francis's unprecedented encyclical on creation care, Laudato Si', is a constant touchstone for Delio, but pride of place in her personal communion of saints is granted to the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose transposition of Catholic Christianity into an evolutionary key animates virtually every page of the book. *Delio's essays orbit this Teilhardian view of things like planets in an intellectual galaxy characterized by both order and chaos. The overall effect is a prophetic warning regarding the irrelevance and near-obsolescence of any Christian system fixated on the categories of Aristotelian or Newtonian worldviews. Like her monastic and mendicant forebears, Delio calls for church reform and creative thinking. The dominant mood of the book, though, is a blend of hope and awe, even audacity. Delio's conclusion equates the rise of a "new species with a new God consciousness" (p. 240) with the second coming of Christ. *Delio's engaging book is limited by its scant attention to the menacing side of science and technology, its failure to reckon seriously with the dramatic rise of nonreligion that calls her privileging of Christian myth into question, its overestimation of the general reader's science literacy, and its tendency to align scholarly and homiletic modes of communication too closely and too uncritically. Readers seeking linear arguments for theistic evolution or Christian pantheism will have to look elsewhere. Clergy, advanced students, and believing specialists in theology and the natural…
Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society, Dec 1, 2020
More than thirty years ago, the Vatican called attention to the relationship between religion and... more More than thirty years ago, the Vatican called attention to the relationship between religion and science, indicating the need for openness and genuine dialogue. In his letter to Fr. George Coyne, SJ, who was then head of the Vatican Observatory, Pope John Paul II described the need to integrate science and religion. Although science and religion are distinct disciplines with their own methods, language, and epistemologies, he said, a unified understanding of reality, one that can inspire faith, requires insights from both areas. Theology has held science at arm’s length, but faith cannot adequately achieve understanding apart from science. In the pope’s words: “Only a dynamic relationship between theology and science can reveal those limits which support the integrity of either discipline, so that theology does not profess a pseudo-science and science does not become an unconscious theology. Our knowledge of each other can lead us to be more authentically ourselves.” The pope’s eloquent insights are summed up toward the end of the letter where he states: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.” I find a lot of John Paul II’s ideas on religion and science expressed in the first few chapters of Roger Haight’s new book, Faith and Evolution. Haight begins by calling attention to the world disclosed by science, stating that science is “revelatory” (). He then proceeds to recount the rise of modern science, highlighting key events that liberated science from medieval theology, beginning with Copernicus and Galileo and the Copernican revolution and, on the side of biology, Charles Darwin and the discovery of evolution. He spends a considerable amount of time on Darwin’s contribution to
One of the greatest challenges to the dignity of the human person today is the development of art... more One of the greatest challenges to the dignity of the human person today is the development of artificial intelligence (A.I.). Among the most recent advances in technology, artificial intelligence is not only an aid to human endeavors but promises to fulfill human desires and ultimately gain immortal life. Some scholars today note that the fundamental impetus of A.I. is religious in nature—freedom from suffering, relationships of love, and immortal life—and motivates its progress. Indeed, the pursuit of A.I. seems to underlie the search for “techno-salvation,” that is, an attempt to attain perfection and immortality apart from suffering and death. Salvation, according to Christian belief, is centered on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It reflects the notion that the human person is imago Dei and has the capacity for God. Whereas A.I. proponents claim that the divine character of the human person rests in the human mind and thus the mind alone is to be “saved,” Christians maintain that the Word became flesh; thus salvation rests on the expression of love in a human
Artificial Intelligence (AI ) has entered our world and changed the matrices of human relationshi... more Artificial Intelligence (AI ) has entered our world and changed the matrices of human relationships. A thousand years ago, the philosophical challenge was to think nature-and ourselves in the presence of nature. Today, according to Sr. Delio, the great and the first philosophical challenge is to think technology and to think ourselves in the presence of technology. Nature creates new connections and computer technology may be described within the wider framework of relationships. In this respect, a new type of complex life system is arising whereby the human person is not an autonomous subject over and against the machine and the machine is not an autonomous entity over and against the human person. Rather person and machine are interrelated and form a larger system of creative life. Using Teilhard de Chardin’s vision of love at the heart of the cosmos, Sr. Delio will show why AI is consonant with a metaphysics of love and Christogenesis
In the year 1225, a year before his death, Francis of Assisi composed the Canticle of Brother Sun... more In the year 1225, a year before his death, Francis of Assisi composed the Canticle of Brother Sun, a rich lyrical poem in which God is praised through the works of creation. Although the text is relatively simple in composition, the Canticle encompasses a profound inner meaning that transcends creation prima facie, the elements of which comprise the body of praises.1 The Canticle can be identified as a hymn of light composed by one who experienced the true light of God revealed in Christ. Yet, paradoxically, at the time of its composition, Francis was virtually blind, in constant physical pain and approaching the end of his life. The praises of God expressed in the Canticle, therefore, point to a deeper meaning of Francis's life in relationship to God. Since he had already received the stigmata by the time he composed the text, his unique relationship to God can be identified in his conformity to the Crucified. The thesis of this paper is that the Canticle of Brother Sun is a testimony of Francis's mystical union with Christ. It is a cosmic Christie hymn in which Francis, united to Christ, sings of his union with all creation in Christ. The eschatological tone of the hymn resonates the melody of the new paradise in which Christ stands as center and eternal mediator.
There is an age-old saying that captures the sacredness of place where lies our deepest sense of ... more There is an age-old saying that captures the sacredness of place where lies our deepest sense of peace and comfort, of all that we are and strive to be, where memories are drawn and dreams unfold. “Home is where the heart is,” not only speaks to every weary traveler who arrives safely home after a long trip but to anyone who searches for that place in the world where one can truly be oneself. The Franciscan theologian, Bonaventure, captured this idea in his own way when he wrote: “You truly exist where you love not merely where you live.” In other words, you truly are yourself and the fullness of all you can be where you love, and where you love is truly where you live. If loving and living are so united, we may question whether or not we truly love where we live. For we live in creation, in the natural world of created things. Scientists today tell us that creation is our “home,” that we are biologically related to other living forms of life and that, on a broader level, we are joi...
In the Middle Ages, the destiny of the historical process was a subject of intense thought, fuele... more In the Middle Ages, the destiny of the historical process was a subject of intense thought, fueled by an overarching notion of historical change and the impending final age. Of the many theologians who contributed to this discussion none stands out in more colorful form than the Cistercian abbot, Joachim of Fiore (1135–1202). Joachim made his mark by describing history as a process of patterns unfolding according to the relationships of the Trinity. For Joachim, history was an ongoing work of the living God, and he sought to elucidate the innermost mystery of the trinitarian relationships in the working-out of history. The whole process of history, he maintained, was progressing toward a higher spiritual level that would be characterized by the image of the mystical body of Christ in the final age, an age that he held would take place in this world. Although Bonaventure dismissed Joachim early in his academic career as ignorant and simplex, his rise to minister general in an order divided by radical Joachimism may have influenced his view of the abbot's theology. E. Randolph Daniel has shown that Bonaventure borrowed one of Joachim's patterns of history to define his eschatology more clearly in terms of Christocentricity. Like Joachim, Bonaventure held that the final age would take place in this world, and would be characterized by mystical peace. Potential Joachimist influence may also be detected in Bonaventure's Legenda maior.
This paper explores the relationship between Incarnation and extraterrestrial life in view of the... more This paper explores the relationship between Incarnation and extraterrestrial life in view of the question: can extraterrestrials be saved? The Franciscan theology of Bonaventure and Scotus is used to explore “exoChristology” by examining the Incarnation as a theological rather than anthropological event. The primacy of Christ, held by Franciscan theologians, provides an integral relationship between Christ and creation. From this
The question of ecology is fundamentally a question of relatedness. Is the Christian tradition, a... more The question of ecology is fundamentally a question of relatedness. Is the Christian tradition, at once incarnational and other-worldly, responsible for the ecological crisis? This article examines the position of Bonaventure whose unique theologicalphilosophical synthesis leads to a new understanding of created reality, which I term 'kataphysics'. The foundation of kataphysics begins with Bonaventure's understanding of philosophy as a heteronymous discipline, insofar as philosophy is completed and perfected in theology. From this position he develops an understanding of Being as Goodness based on the Trinity. Bonaventure's integral relationship between Trinity and creation leads to an understanding of created reality as essentially good and intrinsically relational. The integral relation between Trinity and creation through the divine Word gives rise to a theological metaphysics; the metaphysical question becomes the christological question and hence a new understanding of created reality, kataphysics, emerges which involves relatedness. It is suggested that kataphysics undergirds a Christian philosophy of nature which has implications for an ecological stance today.
Transhumanism is a cultural and philosophical movement that advocates human enhancement through t... more Transhumanism is a cultural and philosophical movement that advocates human enhancement through technological means. Seeking to eradicate suffering and death and transcend the limits of biology, transhumanists celebrate the power of technology to transform human life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was intrigued by computer technology and its potential to link humankind on a new level of a global mind. He has been labeled a forerunner of transhumanism; however, his theological vision is not about enhancement but transformation. He recognized that suffering and death are invaluable to the emergence of unitive love, exemplified in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Teilhard's vision helps us realize that suffering in nature may appear as erratic and absurd; however, in light of God's kenotic love, suffering is oriented toward freedom and the fullness of love.
The article explores the relationship between theology and metaphysics in the light of Bonaventur... more The article explores the relationship between theology and metaphysics in the light of Bonaventure's theology. His trinitarian theology grounded in self-communicative love and ontology of personhood renders new insight into his metaphysics of Christ the center. The emergence of creation ex amore through the centrality of the divine Word enables Bonaventure to recast metaphysics in terms of love. The import of his metaphysics of love grounded in the centrality of Christ is discussed in view of contemporary Christian life. K ARL RAHNER, ACUTELY AWARE of the modern philosophical impact on metaphysics, claimed that metaphysical reflection is so fundamental to theology that, "should all philosophers declare the death of metaphysics, he would simply create the necessary philosophical tools within his own theology." 1 Rahner was not alone in his conviction. His contemporary Hans Urs von Balthasar said that, if Christian proclamation and theology made claims of absoluteness on everything that is, then its roots must be in both the historical and metaphysical spheres. 2 "Metaphysics," Walter Kasper writes, "is the name given to the science which enquires not about individual beings or realms of being but about being as such and as a whole. Talk about God presupposes the metaphysical question about being and at the same time keeps this question alive." 3 Balthasar viewed philosophical ILIA DELIO, O.S.F., is professor and chair of the Department of Spirituality Studies at the Washington Theological Union, Washington, D.C. Her recent publications indicate her particular interests in Franciscan studies, spirituality, and religion and science:
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Sep 1, 2022
THE HOURS OF THE UNIVERSE: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey by Ilia Delio. Mary... more THE HOURS OF THE UNIVERSE: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey by Ilia Delio. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2021. 242 pages, index. Paperback; $25.00. ISBN: 9781626984035. *In this exquisitely constructed book, Delio reveals the current state of her reflections on the central concern of her life and work: the relationship of God, humanity, and the universe in the context of the evolutionary process. Her unscripted career leading to this publication, narrated in her memoir Birth of a Dancing Star: My Journey from Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian, has exhibited the same sort of development and diversity that she finds woven into the fabric of the universe. A Franciscan sister who began her religious life as a cloistered member of the Carmelite order, Delio earned doctorates in pharmacology and historical theology and has taught at Trinity College, Washington Theological Union, Georgetown University, and Villanova University. Today, she is an award-winning author, best known for her Center for Christogenesis, which seeks to promote dialogue between faith and reason and stimulate a Christian spirituality fully infused with evolutionary consciousness. *Communicating the urgent need and prospects for that kind of spirituality is the burden of this, Delio's twentieth, book. A theology whose starting point is not evolution and the story of the universe, she insists, is a "useless fabrication" (p. xvi). Her work is rich in scriptural references, but the call to restore the book of nature to its primacy as the true first testament in Christianity's sacred canon is one of her signature themes. Though she displays no interest in apologetics or polemics, her basic assumption is the distinctively Catholic principle of the revelatory character of creation, a conviction at odds with the Protestant Reformers' suspicion of natural theology. A robust sacramental imagination permeates the entire book and provides its organizational design. Portraying the universe as the "new monastery" (p. xvii), Delio orders her reflections according to the liturgy of the hours that has structured daily prayer in Christian monastic communities for centuries: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Delio clusters her chapters--along with prologues of original poetry--around these times of contemplation and guides the reader through the prayers of one rotation of the earth and toward what she calls a new synthesis of faith and science. *Delio's thirty-two brief chapters, each a free-standing essay, cover a broad spectrum of topics from the cosmic to the autobiographical--from quantum physics, gravitational waves, and artificial intelligence to the Eucharist during the coronavirus pandemic and the death of her beloved cat Mango. Delio addresses a number of social issues such as racism, consumerism, and homophobia and sets the full scope of her reflections against the backdrop of the threat of climate change. Her main objective is the nurturing of a Christianity mature enough to match the achievements and insights of contemporary science. In this effort, her primary dialogue partners include interfaith scholar Beatrice Bruteau, Passionist priest and self-styled geologian Thomas Berry, Hindu-Catholic mystic Raimon Panikkar, and luminaries from her elected Franciscan tradition such as Saint Francis, Bonaventure, and the contemporary spiritual writer and retreat leader Richard Rohr. Pope Francis's unprecedented encyclical on creation care, Laudato Si', is a constant touchstone for Delio, but pride of place in her personal communion of saints is granted to the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose transposition of Catholic Christianity into an evolutionary key animates virtually every page of the book. *Delio's essays orbit this Teilhardian view of things like planets in an intellectual galaxy characterized by both order and chaos. The overall effect is a prophetic warning regarding the irrelevance and near-obsolescence of any Christian system fixated on the categories of Aristotelian or Newtonian worldviews. Like her monastic and mendicant forebears, Delio calls for church reform and creative thinking. The dominant mood of the book, though, is a blend of hope and awe, even audacity. Delio's conclusion equates the rise of a "new species with a new God consciousness" (p. 240) with the second coming of Christ. *Delio's engaging book is limited by its scant attention to the menacing side of science and technology, its failure to reckon seriously with the dramatic rise of nonreligion that calls her privileging of Christian myth into question, its overestimation of the general reader's science literacy, and its tendency to align scholarly and homiletic modes of communication too closely and too uncritically. Readers seeking linear arguments for theistic evolution or Christian pantheism will have to look elsewhere. Clergy, advanced students, and believing specialists in theology and the natural…
Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society, Dec 1, 2020
More than thirty years ago, the Vatican called attention to the relationship between religion and... more More than thirty years ago, the Vatican called attention to the relationship between religion and science, indicating the need for openness and genuine dialogue. In his letter to Fr. George Coyne, SJ, who was then head of the Vatican Observatory, Pope John Paul II described the need to integrate science and religion. Although science and religion are distinct disciplines with their own methods, language, and epistemologies, he said, a unified understanding of reality, one that can inspire faith, requires insights from both areas. Theology has held science at arm’s length, but faith cannot adequately achieve understanding apart from science. In the pope’s words: “Only a dynamic relationship between theology and science can reveal those limits which support the integrity of either discipline, so that theology does not profess a pseudo-science and science does not become an unconscious theology. Our knowledge of each other can lead us to be more authentically ourselves.” The pope’s eloquent insights are summed up toward the end of the letter where he states: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.” I find a lot of John Paul II’s ideas on religion and science expressed in the first few chapters of Roger Haight’s new book, Faith and Evolution. Haight begins by calling attention to the world disclosed by science, stating that science is “revelatory” (). He then proceeds to recount the rise of modern science, highlighting key events that liberated science from medieval theology, beginning with Copernicus and Galileo and the Copernican revolution and, on the side of biology, Charles Darwin and the discovery of evolution. He spends a considerable amount of time on Darwin’s contribution to
One of the greatest challenges to the dignity of the human person today is the development of art... more One of the greatest challenges to the dignity of the human person today is the development of artificial intelligence (A.I.). Among the most recent advances in technology, artificial intelligence is not only an aid to human endeavors but promises to fulfill human desires and ultimately gain immortal life. Some scholars today note that the fundamental impetus of A.I. is religious in nature—freedom from suffering, relationships of love, and immortal life—and motivates its progress. Indeed, the pursuit of A.I. seems to underlie the search for “techno-salvation,” that is, an attempt to attain perfection and immortality apart from suffering and death. Salvation, according to Christian belief, is centered on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It reflects the notion that the human person is imago Dei and has the capacity for God. Whereas A.I. proponents claim that the divine character of the human person rests in the human mind and thus the mind alone is to be “saved,” Christians maintain that the Word became flesh; thus salvation rests on the expression of love in a human
Artificial Intelligence (AI ) has entered our world and changed the matrices of human relationshi... more Artificial Intelligence (AI ) has entered our world and changed the matrices of human relationships. A thousand years ago, the philosophical challenge was to think nature-and ourselves in the presence of nature. Today, according to Sr. Delio, the great and the first philosophical challenge is to think technology and to think ourselves in the presence of technology. Nature creates new connections and computer technology may be described within the wider framework of relationships. In this respect, a new type of complex life system is arising whereby the human person is not an autonomous subject over and against the machine and the machine is not an autonomous entity over and against the human person. Rather person and machine are interrelated and form a larger system of creative life. Using Teilhard de Chardin’s vision of love at the heart of the cosmos, Sr. Delio will show why AI is consonant with a metaphysics of love and Christogenesis
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