Dominion theology, premised in Earth-centric cosmology, is irreconcilable with process theology (natural) that arises organically from evolving cosmic consciousness. Roman Catholic fixation in its own centrism (infallibilism) obscures the organic understanding of human/ divine Covenant and compromises fidelity to Covenant (trust relationships).
If Catholicism means to be universal (catholic) in its truth-sense, and if truth is expressed organically (physically/ psychically) in ongoing evolution, then evolution and Catholicism, necessarily, and morally, converge in intentional consciousness. If human purpose (intentional symbiosis) would avoid imperiling itself it needs to seek out authentic truth revelation in evolution. Truth-sense endures in the unity and continuity of cosmic evolution (what symbiosis does); disdain toward cosmic evolution is disdain toward truth's unity and continuity, the frustration of truth-sense.
One of the more remarkable findings of space science is that the expansion of the universe continues at an accelerating pace. What this suggests is the ongoing decentralization of the cosmos and the expansion of cosmic acentricity.
The original gravity of "absolute" centeredness that preceded the bigbang continues to be diffused at an accelerating rate, and ever more distributed and shared in the expanding quantum-electric relationships. The distribution and expansion of gravity energy are what cosmic evolution is about, and what the personalizing and complexifying of self-reflective consciousness are about. "Dominion Theology" obsesses in pre-bigbang centrism while "Liberation Theology" celebrates personal liberation and self-reflective authenticity.
The liberation and distribution of gravity, i.e., the process of expanding consciousness, is at the heart of "intelligent design" which valuates human authenticity and personal worth. Cosmic personalizing (self-reflectivity) is an apex accomplishment of cosmic evolution. Faith and reason together work to sustain and advance the personalizing process, which secures purpose and meaning by focusing reflective intention on the centering means of self-sustainability.
If focus on purposeful centering collapses, then the process of decentering accelerates and puts human personalizing in peril; the outcome of unmitigated decentering (entropy) is greater chaos. At the other extreme, the outcome of unmitigated centering, "centrism," is the deflation of personal authenticity and overreach of personal conscience.
The cosmic process of CONSCIOUSNESS RECONCILING TRUTH-SENSE is what "Theistic Evolution" is about; what conscionable living within of the human/ natural/ divine Covenant is about; what universal morality is about. "Church" (the global people) should seek out truth/ covenant understandings with enthusiasm for truth-sense is the primacy "business" of religion; nevertheless, churches remains dismissively minded toward theistic evolution.
Before the Catholic Church can realistically embrace theistic evolution, it must first deal with its entrenched misdirection and with its overt sins of the past, e.g., against Bruno, Galileo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose evolving insights show the way of reconciling Christian Theology and faith practice with quantum science.
Whether or not institutional Catholicism is capable of making the quantum leap of accepting the evolutionary insights of theistic evolution remains an open question - but, that a growing segment of Catholics have made the leap isn't controvertible.
Based on very recent actions and remarks of Pope Benedict XVI it seems quite clear that he has not made the shift. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-401950/Pope-sacks-astronomer-evolution-debate. From a transcript of Benedict XVI's Q&A with priests in northern Italy, Posted on Aug 8, 2008 11:45am CST, "The theory of evolution sees the truth, but it sees only half of it. It does not see that behind evolution there's the Spirit of creation. We are struggling for the expansion of reason, and thus for a form of reason that is open to the beautiful, not leaving it aside as something totally different or irrational."
It is quite clear that the present advance of theistic evolution DOES accept "that behind evolution there's the Spirit of creation." Will the two Catholic churches (Vatican II and Vatican I) persist in their schism, or will they (can they) reconcile on terms of accommodations available in understanding theistic evolution and the intelligent design of evolution?
Christian churches in general have a problem with evolution because they have persisted historically in their antagonism toward science and Enlightenment rationalism, even as Enlightenment rationalism has persisted in its atheistic antagonism against cultures of fideistic religions. It is my sense that "Second" Enlightenment consciousness has opened avenues of dialog that can reconcile faith consciousness with reason/ science.
The foremost recognized protagonist for theistic evolution is the French Jesuit Paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who has advanced a scientific sense that is consistent with Bruno and Albert Einstein; contemporary illuminaries, such as Thomas Berry and James N. Studer advance theistic evolution even further. Even though Chardin's theology and cosmology had a powerful influence on the thinking and conclusions of Vatican II, Chardin remains unacceptable to the Church.
What is immediately relevant to the global predicament of Church's ecosocial disconnect is that Teilhard de Chardin opens up a rationality that is a framework on which the impasse between theistic evolution (Christian) and atheistic evolution (Enlightenment) might find common ground; significant strands of [C]catholic (universal) theistic evolution have now been developed beyond the worldview and theology of Chardin.
Evolution is intelligent design, that is, organic life transformed from "intensional" symbiosis to "intentional". The self-reflective person who is the personal extension of the "Cosmic Christ", lives by and rationalizes the symbiotic purposes of organic life. The "divine milieu" of Teilhard de Chardin is the cosmic spirituality of "divine instance", the self-reflective inspiration of the Cosmic Christ. Our destiny in nature is the fullness of love, of Cosmic Christlikeness.
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Comments: 5
Bottom line: each of us personally, and societal institutions collectively need to understand total human dependency on nature. Exploiting nature and wasting environments are spiritually and economically self-defeating for humankind. When we waste nature's capital we destroy our economic and spiritual future. This is the fix global humanity is in.
We need to reckon with evolving realities and update our worldview consciousness if we are to begin living more sustainablly in relationship to nature, and more equitably in our global relationships with each other. To get a fuller answer, may I suggest that you check out the website www.evolution101.org
The "class" this paper is for is global humankind, and for churches in their equal obligation to get on the right side of history — beyond fixations of the "religious right". Thank you for asking, Terry.
I am somewhat familiar with astrophysics as it was my minor many years ago and I have discovered that if my astrophysics worldview isn’t shattered completely with every reunion I attend (or in other words every five years) I wasn’t paying attention. The actual acceleration of the universe is downright bizarre. It is only currently accelerating. The last theory I recall involved multiple interfering universes. For the life of me I can’t understand how that easily translates into a model of theology.
This in turn leads to the notion of Evolution and Intelligent Design. (Well actually, that’s the problem, this doesn’t lead to evolution and intelligent design; it doesn’t lead anywhere.) The problem is that the two ideas are only tangentially related and attempts to link the two invariably cause problems. The former describes a process; the latter attempts to describe who or what drives the process.
Perhaps the "Joined Faith/ Evolution Syllabus" fleshes out more satisfactorily the "fancy assertions" you object to. See: www.secondenlightenment.org and www.evolution101.org
"Each of us personally, and societal institutions collectively need to understand total human dependency on nature. Exploiting nature and wasting environments are spiritually and economically self-defeating for humankind."
How true. I had never looked at religion as an enemy of nature before. I have written papers about how we use it to destroy mankind and the fact that doing so is self-destructive. But, your point is pretty logical, too. If we destroy nature, we also destroy ourselves.
I disagree that it is a sloppy essay! I thought it was a good one, although, I did wish that there were sources at the end and a clear thesis at the beginning, only because (as silly as this sounds) I like to know which direction the author is going to take me in. But, I can tell there has been a lot of consideration and study put into it. Unfortunately, that's a bit rare here on Gather. (sigh).
I'm glad to have found your article!