Human Becoming in an Age of Science, Technology, and Faith

Jason P. Roberts; Mladen Turk; Philip Hefner

doi:10.5771/9781978708389

Summary

What does it mean to be human in an age of science, technology, and faith? The ability to ask such a question suggests at least a partial answer, in that however we describe ourselves we bear a major role in determining what we will become. In this book, Philip Hefner reminds us that this inescapable condition is the challenge and opportunity of Homo sapiens as the created co-creator. In four original chapters and an epilogue, Hefner frames the created co-creator as a memoirist with an ambiguous legacy, explores some of the roots of this ambiguity, emphasizes the importance of answering this ambiguity with symbols that can interpret it in wholesome ways, proposes a partial theological framework for co-creating such symbols, and applies this framework to the challenge of using technology like artificial intelligence and robotics to create other co-creators in our own image. Editors Jason P. Roberts and Mladen Turk have compiled eight responses to Hefner’s work to honor his scholarly career and answer his call to help co-create a more wholesome future in an age of science, technology, and faith.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-9787-0837-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-9787-0838-9
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 238
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. 1. Notes No access
Editors’ Introduction No access Pages 1 - 6
1. 1. I. An Emerging Image of Who We Are No access
  2. II. The Context Is Human Becoming No access
  3. III. We Are Writing a Personal Narrative, a Memoir No access
  4. IV. Who Is the Memoirist? No access
  5. Notes No access
2. 1. I. Confronted with Ambiguity: Morality and Valuing Our Creation No access
  2. II. Confronted with Ambiguity: Acknowledging Our Creating Nature No access
  3. III. Resources for Interpreting Our Experience as Creators No access
  4. Notes No access
3. 1. I. Seeking a Symbol No access
  2. II. The Issue Is Wholesomeness No access
  3. III. Created Co-creator: Science and Christian Tradition No access
  4. IV. Created Co-creator as Metaphor and Symbol No access
  5. V. Created Co-creator as Religious Symbol No access
  6. VI. God and the “Co” in Co-creator No access
  7. Notes No access
4. 1. I. Assessment No access
  2. II. Sin No access
  3. III. Technology Is Not Evil No access
  4. IV. Progress No access
  5. V. Falling Short No access
  6. VI. CouÉism No access
  7. VII. God and the World No access
  8. VIII. Theological Resources No access
  9. IX. Creating and Responsibility No access
  10. X. Conclusion: Deep Co-creating—Encountering God No access
  11. Notes No access
5. 1. I. A New Challenge for the Co-creator No access
  2. II. Philosophical and Theological Perspectives No access
  3. Notes No access
1. 1. I. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer No access
  2. II. Created Co-creator No access
  3. III. Created Co-redeemer No access
  4. IV. Created Co-sustainer No access
  5. V. Conclusion: The Created Co-creator, Redeemer, Sustainer No access
  6. Notes No access
2. 1. I. An Ancient Worldview No access
  2. II. The Rise of Modern Science No access
  3. III. Creator No access
  4. IV. Co-creator, a Memoir No access
  5. V. The Co-creator, Morality, and Climate Change No access
  6. VI. Conclusion No access
  7. Notes No access
1. 1. I. Created Co-creator as Imago Dei No access
  2. II. From Creation to New Creation No access
  3. III. From Evolution to Freedom to Meaning No access
  4. IV. Meaning and Time No access
  5. V. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
2. 1. I. Introduction No access
  2. II. In the Image of God . . . Co-creating No access
  3. III. Created to Be Co-creators: Engaging Hefner’s Critics No access
  4. IV. At Home in the Cosmos . . . Created No access
  5. V. Self-Creating No access
  6. VI. A Friendly Question: To What Extent Does “Co-creation” Apply Beyond the Human Being? No access
  7. VII. Conclusion No access
  8. Notes No access
3. 1. I. School of the Spirit: Practicing the Art of Seeing, Fly Fishing, and Faith No access
  2. II. Created Co-creators: Creating Genetically Altered Cattle No access
  3. III. Created Co-creators: Co-Companion Species No access
  4. IV. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
4. 1. I. Setting the Stage: The Created Co-creator, Progressivists, and Doomsayers No access
  2. II. Objective Goods No access
  3. III. Politics, Creativity, and Human Institutions No access
  4. IV. Institutions, Despair, and Hope: A Theological Grace Note No access
  5. Notes No access
5. 1. I. Where Did the Created Co-creator Go Wrong? No access
  2. II. Will the Human Become Posthuman? No access
  3. III. The Leaks in the Bottom of the Technological Boat No access
  4. IV. The Proleptic Common Good No access
  5. V. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
6. 1. I. Theoretical Difficulties No access
  2. II. Death No access
  3. III. Groundlessness No access
  4. IV. Insatiability No access
  5. V. Belittlement No access
  6. VI. Created Co-creator as Open Question No access
  7. Notes No access
Index No access Pages 223 - 234
About the Contributors No access Pages 235 - 238