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Theology and Technology: Humanity in Process

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THEOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY: HUMANITY IN PROCESS A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF NORTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY LOMBARD, ILLINOIS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS BY CHRIS WALTERS MAY 20, 2008 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................................................................ vii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem........................................................................................ 1 Statement of Purpose ............................................................................................ 13 Chapter Outline..................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 1. PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY.... 17 Introduction........................................................................................................... 17 Plato ...................................................................................................................... 18 Aristotle................................................................................................................. 21 The Legacy of Plato and Aristotle ........................................................................ 23 Descartes and the Mind-Body Problem ................................................................ 25 2. BIBLICAL BACKGROUND OF THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY................. 28 Introduction........................................................................................................... 28 Biblical Examples of Dualism .............................................................................. 29 Consideration of the Hermeneutical Task............................................................. 30 Nephesh ................................................................................................................. 32 Ruach .................................................................................................................... 34 Basar ..................................................................................................................... 36 Leb and Lebab ....................................................................................................... 37 Psych ē ................................................................................................................... 39 Pneuma ................................................................................................................. 40 Sarx and Soma ....................................................................................................... 41 The Case for Dualism in the Bible........................................................................ 42 3. THE ENLIGHTENMENT: THEOLOGICAL ROOTS AND IMPACT..................... 47 Historical Prelude to the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution ............... 47 iii The Legacy of Anselm and Aquinas..................................................................... 50 The Enlightenment Agenda .................................................................................. 54 Mechanism and Materialism................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 59 4. THE RESPONSE OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN TO MATERIALISM AND DARWINISM............................................................................................................. 61 Introduction........................................................................................................... 61 Strategies and Tactics of ID.................................................................................. 62 The Proponents of ID............................................................................................ 63 Phillip Johnson...................................................................................................... 64 Nancy Pearcey ...................................................................................................... 65 William Dembski.................................................................................................. 67 Michael Behe ........................................................................................................ 69 Hugh Ross............................................................................................................. 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 72 5. THE RESPONSE OF THEISTIC NATURALISTS TO MATERIALISM AND DARWINISM............................................................................................................. 74 Introduction........................................................................................................... 74 Howard Van Till ................................................................................................... 74 Arthur Peacocke.................................................................................................... 76 John Polkinghorne ................................................................................................ 79 Nancey Murphy .................................................................................................... 82 Philip Hefner......................................................................................................... 86 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 88 6. STORY CONSTRUCTION: TELLING THE FUTURE ............................................ 90 Introduction........................................................................................................... 90 Cultural Conceptions of the Impact of Technology on Human Nature................ 92 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 103 7. SCIENCE, THEOLOGY & TECHNOLOGY: THE FRONTIER OF HUMAN BECOMING ............................................................................................................. 104 What Is a Theology of Technology?................................................................... 104 iv Naturalizing Faith ............................................................................................... 106 Dualism, the Image of God, and Dominion........................................................ 108 The Concept of Harmony Necessitates the Concept of Progress ....................... 110 “Progress” as a Boundary Issue for Human Nature............................................ 112 What Is Progress? Who Determines What Progress Is? ..................................... 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 118 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I offer my most heartfelt thanks to my wife Eun-Hye for supporting me through the process of researching and writing this thesis. She patiently listened to me many times as I verbally processed my ideas out loud, often late at night when all she wanted to do was sleep, and she listened with her heart as a pastor, friend, partner, spouse, and scholar. Listening is an under-appreciated and under-practiced skill. She is an expert. vi ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Depiction of Pearcey’s Dualistic Themes and Tensions…………………………. 10 2. Dembski’s Explanatory Filter………………………………………………...….. 69 vii INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem In her 2004 book, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity , Nancy Pearcey examines the deep historical roots of dualistic thinking in the Western world. Many dualisms have developed over the centuries: form/matter (Plato), grace/nature (Aquinas), mind/matter (Descartes), freedom/nature (Kant). 1 Pearcey concludes that the culminating effect of these dualisms has been the entrenchment of the split between facts versus values , a split ultimately “clinched in the late nineteenth century by the rise of Darwinism.” 2 Using the metaphor of a building to epistemologically locate the two components of dualisms, Pearcey contends that the facts/values split places science and reason in the lower levels of the building and ethics and religion in the upper levels. The implication is clear. Knowledge based on science and reason is foundational. Ethical and religious knowledge is not foundational. Pearcey’s agenda is to restore discernment of truth and falsity as the preeminent value in worldview thinking and especially to restore this value for Christians because it is not only consistent with a Christian worldview, she argues, but also because highly valuing objective truth is foundational for a Christian worldview, a worldview that makes claims of “Total Truth.” 1 Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 74-80, 102-6. 2 Ibid., 106. 1 2 The facts/values split Pearcey studies is comprehensive and is thus unconsciously manifested in our everyday speech, personal behavior, and societal and cultural norms (or lack thereof). I suspect most of us have heard the often-repeated phrase, whether genuinely exclaimed
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