IngentaConnect ARE SCIENCE AND HUMANISM SUITED TO ENTER THE ANCIENT QUEST OF CHR...

Author: Westhelle, Vítor¹

Source: Zygon, Volume 41, Number 4, December 2006 , pp. 843-852(10)

Abstract:

This response reverses the title of Lluís Oviedo's essay (2006) while retaining the structure. In the pendulum swing between science and humanism, theology finds its uniqueness not in refuting either but in subverting them: subverting the scientific quest for certainty without denying its pursuit, and subverting the humanist quest for the unique dignity of the human by reducing it to the most despoiled creature, yet finding in it the presence of the divine. Theological pursuit is about reason and its limits, about brokenness and glory in it. Yet the engagement is unavoidable, for without the scientific pursuit of certainty, incompleteness could never be established; without the humanist search for the uniqueness of the human, its admixed and impure character would not be recognized. The concept of hybridity tries to convey that and is presented in three instantiations: the conflation of the human with machine (cyborg), of humans and other animals (oncomouse), and of the human and the divine. Following these ontological cases of hybridity, at the epistemological level theology becomes hybrid “science” in search of the mythos in the midst of logos, and conversely it is hybrid humanism, for it locates God in the greatest depravity of mammalian existence.

Keywords: created co-creator; cyborg; Donna Haraway; Philip Hefner; humanism; hybridity; logos; mythos; oncomouse; Lluís Oviedo; science; theology

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2006.00781.x

Affiliations: 1: Professor of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615-5199.

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$41.89 plus tax Refund Policy

ARE SCIENCE AND HUMANISM SUITED TO ENTER THE ANCIENT QUEST OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY? A RESPONSE TO LLUÍS OVIEDO