Sin and Selfish Genes

Christian and Biological Narratives

by M. Vejrup Nielsen

Book cover: Sin and Selfish Genes

Extent: 286 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Philosophy, Religious Studies

Series: Studies in Philosophical Theology

Series volume number: 44

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(August 2010)

ISBN: 9789042922631

Price: $60.00

In stock

The claim of this book is that there are narratives in the form of ‘stories to live by’ in both Christian theology and evolutionary biology. The narrative approach developed analyzes the fundamental crisis of humanity within narratives from the two disciplines and presents an interdisciplinary discussion of this theme. The analysis of the Christian theologians focuses on the notion of ‘sin’ as the fundamental crisis of humanity in the doctrine of sin in Augustine and Martin Luther. This forms the background for an analysis of how Paul Tillich and Wolfhart Pannenberg have responded to the challenge of reformulating ‘sin’ in a contemporary context. The analysis of evolutionary biology focuses on the multitude of agents in the drama of crisis and solution, such as selfish genes’ and ‘creative Gaia’, in Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson, Lynn Margulis and Brian Goodwin. In conclusion, the book offers considerations for the formulation of a doctrine of sin in a contemporary, interdisciplinary context.

  • By (author) M Vejrup Nielsen