IngentaConnect HIERARCHIES: THE CORE ARGUMENT FOR A NATURALISTIC CHRISTIAN FAITH

Author: Clayton, Philip¹

Source: Zygon, Volume 43, Number 1, March 2008 , pp. 27-41(15)

Abstract:

This article takes on a perhaps impossible task: not only to reconstruct the core argument of Arthur Peacocke's program in science and religion but also to evaluate it in two major areas where it would seem to be vulnerable, namely, more recent developments in systems biology and the philosophy of mind. If his theory of hierarchies is to be successful, it must stand up to developments in these two areas and then be able to apply the results in a productive way to Christian theological reflection. Peacocke recognized that one's model of the mind-body relation is crucial for one's position on the God-world relation and divine action. Of the three models that he constructed, it turns out that only the third can serve as a viable model for theology if it is to be more than purely deistic or metaphorical.

Keywords: complexity theory; divine action; emergence theory; God-world relation; hierarchies; levels of the natural world and of explanation; mathematical biology; mind-body problem; Arthur Peacocke; philosophy of mind; reaction stoichiometry; systems biology

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00896.x

Affiliations: 1: Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the Claremont Graduate University, 1325 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711.

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