How we define ‘nature’ defines our relation with nature, Emma Marris argues. She invites us to take a different perspective on environmental care. In a way one could say she advocates for a child’s perspective on nature. I think the point she makes is worth considering. We need to get back in touch with nature, […]
Category: Little Reflections
Little Reflections
Debate on Niche Construction
I recently discovered an older (2014) article in Nature debating the value of the concept ‘niche construction’. The article nicely offers room for advocates and opponents of this concept. Niche construction is, briefly said, the notion that the relation between organisms and their environment is a feedback relation: organisms alter their environment through their actions, with […]
Religion and Science in “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity. The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Humanity”
Earlier this week, a “Final Declaration” was published from a workshop on climate change, organized by, amongst others, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Obviously, this declaration is an important contribution to the debate regarding global warming (or, more euphemistically: ‘climate change’), inviting a number of enthusiastic as well as more critical comments in the media. […]
Making is Finding. A Poem on Theological Anthropology by Alan Nordstrom
One of the most important theological resources for my PhD-research is Philip Hefner‘s theological-anthropological work, mainly his concept of ‘created co-creator’. Perhaps one of the most captivating introductions to this concept has been written by Alan Nordstrom, in his poem ‘Making is Finding’. It has been published in Zygon, just over ten years ago, as […]
Cultural Niche and Education
One of the things that interested me in the study of culture by use of evolutionary models, was the concept of “niche construction”. I still think this concept offers possibilities to imagine how education should be done. After having read both Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett on meme theory, I wasn’t convinced that memes could fully explain […]
Why Science Does Not Break the Spell of Religion
This morning I made a note on a quote by Philip Hefner, from his “The Human Factor” (p. 86): “Jesus caressed and pressed things until they began to resist, and at that point, his experience moved him to utter “Abba, Father” — the significance being not that “Father” is masculine, but that “Father” is personal. […]
The Way We Were: Why Remembering Matters
I wrote a new blogpost for the group-blog of the Anthropos Research Group. What I try to do, is to suggest a link between an evolutionary perspective on the development of cultural traditions, and a theological perspective on tradition. You can read the full post here, of course. Or you could just skip to the part where […]
The Beauty of Theology
Using academic vocabulary is sometimes perceived as being elitist, ‘ivory tower talk’. And sometimes such criticism is justified. But then there’s this perspective on theological jargon… Source: Vítor Westhelle, Zygon, vol. 39, no. 4 (December 2004), p. 750. What do you think? Do you regard the vocabulary of your discipline, or concepts specific to it, as […]
Sports And Religion
I wrote a blogpost with a short reflection on what I see as the main dissimilarity between sports and religion, namely the apparent inability of sports today to criticize existing social structures. Sport events seem to have fallen under the spell of that one narrative that, after the fall of ‘grand narratives’, hidden behind the […]
To the extent that we do not know the circumstances of origin and the original functions of religion, we do not understand our symbols, myths, and rituals.
(Philip Hefner, The Human Factor, p. 159) Just a thought for those who believe evolutionary explanations of religion are irrelevant, or even threatening, for theology.
Weekly Gardening 