Holobiont Theology in the Age of the Microbe by Aminah Al-Attas
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Symbiotic Grace: Holobiont Theology in the Age of the Microbe by Aminah Al-Attas Bradford Duke Divinity School Date:___12/1____________6/2020 Approved: ___________________________ Edgardo Colόn-Emeric, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Eugene F. Rogers, Jr., Co-Supervisor ________________________________________________ JJ.. WWaarrrreenn SSmmiitthh ___________________________ Lauren F. Winner _____________________________________________________ Willis Jenkins Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology at Duke Divinity School 2020 ABSTRACT Symbiotic Grace: Holobiont Theology in the Age of the Microbe by Aminah Al-Attas Bradford Duke Divinity School Date:__12_____________/16/2020 Approved: ___________________________ Edgardo Colόn-Emeric, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Eugene F. Rogers, Jr., Co-Supervisor ___________________________________________________ JJ.. WWaarrrreenn SSmmiitthh __________________________________________ a ren . Winner _____________________________________________________ Willis Jenkins An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology at Duke Divinity School 2020 2 ii Copyright by Aminah Al-Attas Bradford 2021 iii Abstract Christian theology and discourse work by separating the human individual from “the environment.” The science of the human microbiome exposes the ecological, social and theological inadequacies of this and other western conceptions of the human individual. As multiple disciplines work to accommodate the reality of the human as a multispecies amalgam, the increasingly accepted anthropology of the holobiont presses against theological anthropology’s main trope of the imago dei. While the imago dei is classically identified as some combination of human freedom, self-movement and intellect, holobiont science suggests none of these are possible apart from our microbial symbionts. The idea that I am not myself without God may sometimes be forgotten, but the idea that I am not myself without microbes has scarcely been thought. At least it has scarcely been thought by theologians. Doing theology alert to the boundary-breeching microbe opens the door to a more symbiotic anthropology that re-centers humanity’s dependence on creation. Barriers to developing a holobiont theology include not only a theological genealogy that is prone to set the human at odds with animality, but also a history whereby theology, theories of disease and a pasteurian microbiopolitics have co-evolved to support a habit of self-deceit that traces back to the Fall, both the event and the doctrine. This dissertation develops a theology of the holobiont by fusing aspects and interests of relational theology, new materialism and animality studies to suggest imaging God and epistemology are symbiotic. After addressing the crisis of the microbiome to theology, I analyze a history of the doctrine of the Fall and a history of disease to suggest that germ theory is a palimpsest of the Fall; it impresses upon, writes imperfectly over the still partially visible ancient doctrine of the drama of evil and sin. I construct a doctrine of the Fall and recovery from it in an ecological mode to show that symbiosis extends beyond matters of biology to matters of grace. A microbially-informed doctrine of the Fall as “turning to the wrong tree” paves the way for an embrace of holobiont theology. The project of holobiont theology exposes the ancient and theological distortions about being human that fund and amplify in germ theory, a modern epidemiological framework, and reforms these distortions by centering microbial matter in the story of how God makes, humbles and saves humans. I test this thesis on the pivotal theologian of Thomas Aquinas. His treatment of spontaneous generation, his theology of digestion and personhood and his non-subject- centered, participatory way of knowing and being human anticipates holobiont theology. His doctrines of creation and anthropology are a fitting tool to think towards a holobiont theology that takes up the wisdom of indigenous accounts of the ecological body, where human and world support, absorb, assimilate and become each other without violation. iv In memory of my father, Abdullah Hamid Al-Attas v CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ xi Part I – The Theological Crisis of the Microbiome ............................................................ 1 1. Introduction: Why Microbes? What Does Bacteriology Have to Do with Theology? ... 2 1.1.1 The microbiome troubles modern anthropology................................................ 2 1.1.2 The microbiome troubles modern theology ....................................................... 3 1.2 Microbes trouble Christian theological anthropology .............................................. 7 1.2.1 Microbes challenge the concept of the individual human organism.................. 7 1.2.2 Microbes challenge the human/animal binary ................................................. 15 1.2.3 Microbes challenge anthropocentric exceptionalism ....................................... 22 1.3 Microbes breach boundaries ................................................................................... 27 1.4 Outlining the dissertation ........................................................................................ 31 2. Framing Holobiont Theology: Novel Methods and Repurposed Resources for the Microbial Turn .................................................................................................................. 35 2.1 Old wineskins are not enough ................................................................................. 35 2.1.1 Thinking with traditional sources for a 21st Century problem ......................... 37 2.1.2 The relational turn cultivates pride in what’s above ........................................ 39 2.1.3 New materialism cultivates attention to what is below ................................... 43 2.1.4 Animality studies cultivates humility through what is beside ......................... 50 2.2 New wineskins for holobiont theology ................................................................... 52 2.2.1 Barth’s Christology lowers humans to a pedestal ............................................ 52 2.2.2 Cary Wolfe thinks old wineskins will never be enough .................................. 55 2.2.3 Holobiont Christology from above, below and beside is enough .................... 59 2.2.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 60 vi 3. Barriers to Holobiont Theology .................................................................................... 62 3.1 The Problem and promise of "germs" ..................................................................... 62 3.1.1 The problem of germ theory for human health and the microbial turn ........... 64 3.1.2 Theology poses problems for the microbial turn ............................................. 67 3.2 Microbiome science is new, the theological story of microbes is not .................... 71 3.2.1 Theological consequences of germ theory ....................................................... 72 3.2.1.1 Germ theory divides the human from the environment ............................ 72 3.2.1.2 Germ theory ontologizes evil .................................................................... 79 3.2.2 Nosological consequences of Christian theology. ........................................... 83 Part II – Turning to the Wrong Tree: A Holobiont Theology of the Fall ......................... 90 4. Scapegoating Demons: Cosmology and Anthropology of the Germ............................ 91 4.1 Introduction: The holobiont disrupts and exposes the theological anthropology and cosmology of germ theory ............................................................................................ 91 4.2 Why is gnosticism’s cosmology pessimistic? ......................................................... 98 4.2.1 Pessimistic cosmology functions as a countervailing theodicy for optimistic anthropology ........................................................................................................... 104 4.2.2 The Fall doctrine is a counter theodicy .......................................................... 105 4.3 Germ theory supports gnostic theology and Christian theology feeds germ theory anti-cosmic resources .................................................................................................. 107 4.3.1. Germ theory separates the human from the environment ............................. 107 4.3.2 Germ theory ontologizes disease and evil ..................................................... 110 4.3.2.1 Theologians made disease a metaphor because they thought it did not exist ............................................................................................................................. 111 4.3.2.2 Germ theory makes disease a creature .................................................... 120 4.3.2.3 Medieval theology contributes to germ theory ....................................... 122 4.3.3 Germ theory externalizes disease and externalizes sin .................................. 130 4.3.3.1 Germ theory