Thomistic Evolution: A Catholic Approach To Understanding Evolution In The Light Of Faith PDF
Preview Thomistic Evolution: A Catholic Approach To Understanding Evolution In The Light Of Faith
THOMISTIC EVOLUTION THOMISTIC EVOLUTION A Catholic Approach to Understanding Evolution in the Light of Faith N P G A , O.P. ICANOR IER IORGIO USTRIACO J B , O.P. AMES RENT T D , O.P. HOMAS AVENPORT J B K , O.P. OHN APTIST U Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph CLUNY MEDIA Cluny Media edition, 2016 Cluny Media edition copyright © Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., James Brent, O.P., Thomas Davenport, O.P., and John Baptist Ku, O.P. 2016 All rights reserved www.clunymedia.com ISBN: 9781944418113 Cover design by Clarke & Clarke Cover image: Thomistic Evolution logo (The image of St. Thomas Aquinas was painted by Carlo Crivelli (c.1435–c.1495) as part of the Demidoff Altarpiece intended for the Church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno in Italy. It is currently housed at the National Gallery in London. It is centered within the Circle of Life, a depiction of the evolutionary phylogenetic tree based on the ribosomal RNA of 3,000 living species, first drawn this way by biologist David Hillis at the University of Texas in Austin.) Contents Introduction Acknowledgements 1. Faith and Reason: The Two Wings of the Human Spirit James Brent, O.P. 2. What Is Reason? James Brent, O.P. 3. What Is Faith? James Brent, O.P. 4. Faith and Reason: The Two Wings of the Human Spirit (Part II) James Brent, O.P. 5. Causality: What Are the Four Causes of Things? Thomas Davenport, O.P. 6. The Existence of God According to Reason James Brent, O.P. 7. The Nature of Creation James Brent, O.P. 8. God’s Knowledge and Love in Creation Thomas Davenport, O.P. 9. God’s Providential Governance of Creation Thomas Davenport, O.P. 10. Randomness, Chance, and the Providence of God Thomas Davenport, O.P. 11. Providence and Freedom Thomas Davenport, O.P. 12. Divine Providence and the Mystery of Evil Thomas Davenport, O.P. 13. The Authority, the Character, and the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture John Baptist Ku, O.P. 14. Reading the Bible and the Senses of Sacred Scripture John Baptist Ku, O.P. 15. Interpreting the Creation Narratives in the Bible John Baptist Ku, O.P. 16. Interpreting Genesis One with the Fathers of the Church John Baptist Ku, O.P. 17. Interpreting Genesis One with St. Thomas Aquinas John Baptist Ku, O.P. 18. Modern Biblical Exegesis of the Creation Accounts John Baptist Ku, O.P. 19. Catholic Teaching on Creation and on Human Origins Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 20. The Web of Evidence for Evolution (Part I) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 21. The Web of Evidence for Evolution (Part II) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 22. The Fittingness of Evolutionary Creation Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 23. How Does God Create through Evolution? Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 24. How Did God Create Homo Sapiens through Evolution? Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 25. The Historicity of Adam and Eve (Part I: Theological Data) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 26. The Historicity of Adam and Eve (Part II: The Doctrine of Original Sin) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 27. The Historicity of Adam and Eve (Part III: Scientific Data) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 28. The Historicity of Adam and Eve (Part IV: A Theological Synthesis) Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 29. A Thomistic Response to the Intelligent Design (ID) Proposal Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P. 30. Evolution’s End: The Beatific Vision Thomas Davenport, O.P. About the Authors Introduction Evolutionary theory, understood here as the scientific claims that all the living organisms on our planet have a common biological origin and that these diverse organisms arose through a process of natural selection acting on genetic diversity, has raised numerous disputed questions among the Catholic faithful and other Christian believers. Some of these include the following: How does God create in an evolving world? How are we to read and interpret the creation narratives found throughout the sacred Scriptures in light of evolutionary theory? Did Adam and Eve really exist at the origins of our history as a biological species? There are many others. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225?–1274) was a Dominican friar, a priest, a philosopher, a theologian, and a Doctor of the Church. He is often called the “Angelic Doctor,” not only because of his purity of heart but also because he wrote extensively on the angels. He is known best for his two summaries of theology called the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles and his commentaries on Aristotle’s writings and on sacred Scripture. It is universally acknowledged that St. Thomas was one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers in the history of the Catholic Church. It is not surprising therefore that Vatican II in its decree on priestly training proclaimed the following: “[I]n order that they may illumine the mysteries of salvation as completely as possible, the students should learn to penetrate them more deeply with the help of speculation, under the guidance of St. Thomas, and to perceive their interconnections.”1 As a team of Dominican friars and scholars committed to the preaching of the Gospel, we are convinced that the Thomistic intellectual tradition grounded in the philosophical and theological synthesis of St. Thomas can still provide insightful and compelling responses to the disputed questions raised by evolutionary theory. From our pastoral experience, we have discovered that Catholics and other Christians are frequently surprised by the novelty and brilliance of Thomistic responses to these disputed questions in evolutionary theory. Often, this is the case because these answers transcend and reconcile the dichotomies—for instance, the oft-cited dichotomy between chance and design— that shape the contemporary science and religion debate. God designs with chance! Unfortunately, the Thomistic responses to these disputed questions in science and religion are neither well known nor well understood. To remedy this, we have written this book and inaugurated its companion website (www.thomisticevolution.org) with a series of responses to disputed questions that cover the topics we have encountered most frequently in our conversations with believers. Though the chapters can be read individually, we have intentionally put our answers in an order that systematically reveals the theological vision of our brother, the Angelic Doctor. The book is divided into four parts. In the first part, we begin by describing our overarching vision of how reason and faith come together as two wings of the human spirit which rises to the contemplation of truth.2 In the second part, we then move to several chapters that focus on disputed questions that examine the existence and nature of God without appealing to divine revelation. These philosophical questions are at the heart of the field of inquiry called natural theology. We then move to the third section of the book that examines the scriptural foundations for the Church’s understanding of God’s creative action in the world. What did God tell us about His role in how the diversity of life on this planet came about? Finally, we conclude the book with a series of disputed questions that deal specifically with both the scientific claims put forward by evolutionary biology and the important theological task of putting them into conversation with the teachings of the Catholic Church. 1. Optatam Totius, §16. 2. See Pope St. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, §1.
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