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Rolston Research Conference - Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Berkeley, 1991

Date

1991

Authors

Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author
Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, publisher

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

Article 1: I begin with some autobiography, hoping to conclude with an ethic for Christians for creation. I move from the particular to the universal. This is a story of how living locally has led me to think globally. I see my experience "writ large" as promising for Christians who are asking what it means to reside on a good Earth. What does it profit to gain the world, only to lose it to gain it economically, to fence it in, pave it over, harvest it, only to lose it scientifically, aesthetically, recreationally, religiously, as a wonderland of natural history, as a realm of integral wildness that transcends and supports us and perhaps even to lose some of our soul in the tradeoff? -- Article 2: Values are cumulatively generated in evolutionary natural history. Reductionist accounts of selfish-genes and genetic determination of human behavior are inadequate. Information is generated, shared, distributed, multiplied, enriched over evolutionary history, coded in genes, with this process of information generation transcended in human cultural history, especially evidenced in the genesis of science, ethics and religion. This compounding of values generated not only permits but invites religious analysis and explanation. -- Article 3: Commentators on Rolston's lectures: Robert T. Schimke, "Reflections from a Molecular Biologist," pages 24-26; Walter R. Hearn, "Science, Selves, and Stories," pages 26-31; Carol J. Tabler, "Value Vocabulary in Biology and Theology," pages 32-33; Ted Peters, "Beyond the Genes: Epigenesis and God," pages 34-35; Margaret R. McLean, "A Moral World 'Red in Tooth and Claw'," pages 36-38.

Description

Center for Theology and Natural Sciences Bulletin, vol. 11, no. 2, the proceedings of a research conference devoted to Rolston's work at the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, February 8-16, 1991.
Includes bibliographical references.

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Subject

values in nature
Earth
creation
genetic information
natural history
culture
creation
divine creation
Christian environmental ethics
genesis

Citation

Associated Publications