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18 chapter to Evolution, Altruism, and the Image of God As discussed in the last chapter, Pope John Paul II once asked a series of challenging theological questions regarding evolution: “Does an evolutionary perspective bring any light to bear upon theological anthropology, the meaning of the human person as the imago Dei, the problem of Christology—and even upon the development of doctrine itself?”1 This chapter aims to answer the question whether an evolutionary perspective can throw any new light on the meaning of the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei, or of the human person as created in the image of God. A major puzzle for many sociobiologists in understanding the process of natural selection among humans is how to find an evolutionary place and role for altruism, or for generous other-centeredness, as distinct from self- or group interest.This chapter proposes that from an evolutionary perspective the idea of altruism can provide a fruitful,fresh approach to the doctrine of the image of God by exploring the idea of humanity’s being created in the image of God’s own altruism and by suggesting that this also correspondingly throws light on the nature of human altruism. understanding the image of god The verses in Genesis (1, 26–27) that describe God’s creating humankind in the divine image and likeness are among the most quoted and reflected upon passages of the Bible, and over the centuries they have been understood and explained in a variety of ways.2 As we seek first to understand the verses in their original context in the book of Genesis, it is clear that this passage forms the climax of the narrative that begins with the creation of light and culminates in the creation of the human race. After crafting 19 Understanding the Image of God the physical universe and the plant and animal kingdoms, “God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,and over the birds of the air,and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”3 The clear role of man and woman here, as von Rad expresses it, is to be God’s representative in the world, maintaining and enforcing God’s dominion over the earth and animals.4 Such a role for men and women implies a unique relationship and partnership between humans and God as they fulfill their God-given mission in creation.5 As the Hebrew Bible became adopted by the Christian community as part of the revealed word of God, however, the Genesis verses referring to humans being created in the image and likeness of God were seized upon by early theologians who had been influenced by Greek philosophy and metaphysics, and the passage was given a special anthropological interpretation based on what was considered the unique characteristic of humanity being placed above all other creatures, its possession of the power of reasoning. Thus, in his commentary on the book of Genesis, Augustine pointed out the significance of humanity’s being made in God’s image so as to have dominion over the fish and birds“and other animals lacking reason.” Because of this we should understand that humanity was made in God’s image in possessing something that made it superior to irrational animals, namely,“reason, or mind, or understanding, or any more suitable term” (cf. Eph 4:23–24; Col 3:10).6 The Bible had revealed, however, that God decided to create humankind in his image and also in his likeness, and some theologians followed the Christian thinker Irenaeus in seeing a distinction rather than an accumulation in these two terms. In this way they applied the divine image to humanity’s natural endowment of reason, which was retained even after original sin and the Fall, and the divine likeness to a further divine gift of the Spirit in creation, which humanity lost as a consequence of the Fall but subsequently regained in Christ.7 In the course of theological history, however , the Irenaean distinction between image and likeness lost favor, but the central idea remained that the divine image that was created in humanity related to the power of rationality, and this was given further powerful...

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