RT Article
T1 Biohistorical Naturalism and The Symbol “God”
JF Zygon
VO 38
IS 1
SP 95
OP 100
A1 Kaufman, Gordon D. 1925-2011
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2003
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1827955880
AB This article has two parts, as the title suggests. The first sketches what I call biohistorical naturalism, a naturalistic position in which it is emphasized that the historicocultural development of our humanity, particularly our becoming linguistic/symbolical beings, is as central to our humanness as the biological evolutionary development that preceded (and continues to accompany) it. Apart from such a biohistorical emphasis (or its equivalent), naturalistic positions cannot give adequate accounts of human religiousness. The second part suggests that, although it would not be consistent with biohistorical naturalism to continue thinking of God in the traditional supernaturalistic way as “the Creator,” it would be quite appropriate to understand God as the ongoing creativity (of truly novel realities) manifest in the long history of the universe, particularly in the evolution of life on Earth.
K1 Symbolism
K1 Supernatural
K1 religious naturalism
K1 Nature
K1 Naturalism
K1 Mystery
K1 metaphysical
K1 Historical Development
K1 God
K1 Evolution
K1 Creativity
K1 biohistorical
DO 10.1111/1467-9744.00481