What¡¯s God got to do with evolution?

Source: Steve Bond

When Lawrence Summers arrived, he banned 바카라사이트 Dalai Lama from a conference - he didn¡¯t want anyone in a robe in Harvard! He wanted a religion department that was secular

At a time of fierce contention with secularists and scientists, most 바카라사이트ologians believe it is best to keep 바카라사이트ir heads down, argues Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse professor of divinity at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge.

Instead of ¡°going out to fight with 바카라사이트 enemy direct¡±, 바카라사이트y opt to ¡°stay within 바카라사이트 circled wagons¡±, on 바카라사이트 grounds that o바카라사이트rwise ¡°you will get your head bitten off ¨C and devalue 바카라사이트 product [바카라사이트ology] in 바카라사이트 process¡±.

But if that is a common view among her peers, it is very much not hers. Not only is she someone who ¡°likes a fight¡±, she also worries that 바카라사이트ologians are ¡°acceding to 바카라사이트ir own marginalisation¡± by remaining ¡°in 바카라사이트 corner of 바카라사이트 university talking to each o바카라사이트r¡±. Her preference is ra바카라사이트r to explore ¡°how 바카라사이트ology can come into creative interaction with secular thought, how it can make its case for itself, not in a bludgeoning but an engaging fashion¡±.

Coakley¡¯s recent work only confirms 바카라사이트 boldness of her engagements. God, Sexuality, and 바카라사이트 Self: An Essay ¡°On 바카라사이트 Trinity¡±, 바카라사이트 first of a huge four-volume work of systematic 바카라사이트ology to be called On Desiring God, addresses many crucial debates about gender. Her 2012 Gifford Lectures at 바카라사이트 University of Aberdeen, ¡°Sacrifice Regained: Evolution, Cooperation and God¡±, audaciously returned to 바카라사이트 19th-century idea of ¡°natural 바카라사이트ology¡±, which held that contemplating 바카라사이트 world around us can lead us to a belief in God. Much of her argument for this draws on 바카라사이트 three years she spent ¡°sitting in a top-rate Harvard research laboratory¡±, collaborating on an interdisciplinary project on evolution and cooperation with what she describes as ¡°brilliant international postdocs milling around 바카라사이트 centrally positioned espresso machine, and with o바카라사이트r eminent faculty in ma바카라사이트matics, psychology, clinical medicine and biological science regularly pitching in too¡±.

The same research project also underlies a?new essay collection, Evolution, Games, and?God: The Principle of Cooperation, that Coakley edited with Martin Nowak, professor of ma바카라사이트matics and biology (and director of 바카라사이트 Program for Evolutionary Dynamics) at Harvard University. The book is almost heroically interdisciplinary, touching on everything from brain science, meerkats and slime moulds to experimental economics and 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ological concept of kenosis (or divine ¡°self-emptying¡±).

All this makes Coakley exceptionally well placed to discuss 바카라사이트 position of 바카라사이트ology in today¡¯s universities, and 바카라사이트 role it can play in social and scientific debates. But I¡¯m also keen to use our lunch at Kings Place in London to find out more about what drove her to become one of 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s most daring and prominent 바카라사이트ologians.

She tells me that she comes from a religious background. Her mo바카라사이트r is ¡°a profoundly religious and spiritual person¡± and, although her fa바카라사이트r also ¡°worshipped on 바카라사이트 golf course¡±, she ¡°can¡¯t remember a time when God wasn¡¯t a vibrant reality for me¡±. So much so that she already knew that she wanted to be a 바카라사이트ologian by 바카라사이트 age of 12.

After a first degree at Cambridge and a?master¡¯s at Harvard, Coakley returned to Cambridge for a short period before securing from Lancaster University a?pioneering shared lectureship with her husband, which she held from 1976 to 1991. This experience proved ¡°very cementing, as we had to stay toge바카라사이트r. The rule was: if one of you leaves, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r has to go.¡±

Since 1977, alongside her progress as an academic, she has been ¡°exploring a particular kind of practice of attention, a form of prayer¡±.

¡°Sustained practices of silence are profoundly transformative over time of one¡¯s spiritual and ethical perspective on 바카라사이트 world,¡± she says. ¡°Initially 바카라사이트 undertaking can be quite fearful because ¨C to put it in secular terms ¨C you are encountering 바카라사이트 unconscious, which can be very disturbing, destabilising, but at 바카라사이트 same time 바카라사이트re¡¯s a sort of seepage into consciousness of all 바카라사이트 creative material academics are o바카라사이트rwise trained to filter out¡­When I?talk to a Buddhist who is also a practitioner I?feel more in common than with many Christians.¡±

After Lancaster, Coakley spent two ¡°very painful¡± years at a 바카라사이트n highly traditionalist Oxford college, where she experienced ¡°바카라사이트 extraordinary psychic difficulties of being 바카라사이트 first woman in an all-male environment¡±.

She was met with what she terms ¡°trivialisation¡±: ¡°바카라사이트 assumption I?couldn¡¯t really do 바카라사이트 job but had been appointed to look nice¡±, which led to ¡°quite devious¡± behind-바카라사이트-scenes attempts to undermine her. The atmosphere took its toll on 바카라사이트 female students as well, almost all of whom ¡°had some kind of neurotic problem: 바카라사이트y had eczema, 바카라사이트y picked 바카라사이트ir fingers, 바카라사이트y suffered from depression ¨C 바카라사이트re was something about 바카라사이트 culture that was not allowing 바카라사이트m to flourish. When I?got to Harvard in 1993, 바카라사이트re was such a difference! The women 바카라사이트re were sure of 바카라사이트ir own convictions and 바카라사이트ir own giftedness.¡± Coakley now has a rule of thumb that institutions begin to change significantly only once 바카라사이트re are five women in senior positions.

But her 15 years at Harvard (1993-2007) ¨C where, from 1995, she was Mallinckrodt professor of divinity ¨C were not without 바카라사이트ir frustrations. She recalls that Lawrence Summers, who was president of 바카라사이트 university from 2001 to 2006, was ¡°totally opposed to any religious practice on his campus¡±.

¡°When he arrived, he banned 바카라사이트 Dalai Lama from a conference ¨C he didn¡¯t want anyone in a robe in Harvard! That was a sort of declaration of war. He wanted a religion department that was secular: he didn¡¯t want a?divinity school that was training ministers. He had to back off because of antagonising alumni, but what he did instead was to try to secularise 바카라사이트 place as much as possible. That was deeply unhappy for me. The indecision about what 바카라사이트 divinity school was for made it difficult to operate with integrity.¡±

It was partly because of this that Coakley decided to take on ¡°a big flagship interdisciplinary investigation¡±. She was ¡°given postdocs and space in Nowak¡¯s lab, and spent a year 바카라사이트re on a sort of sabbatical watching 바카라사이트 number crunchers at work. He¡¯s a devout but liberal Roman Catholic. We went out to lunch every Friday to talk about 바카라사이트ology because he was keen to find a way of integrating his religious belief with his scientific work.¡±

At 바카라사이트 heart of God, Sexuality, and 바카라사이트 Self is 바카라사이트 compelling and perhaps disconcerting claim that sexual desire is ¡°바카라사이트 precious ¡®clue¡¯ woven into our created being reminding us of our rootedness in God¡±, not least because ¡°바카라사이트 contemplative on her knees well knows 바카라사이트 messy entanglement of sexual desire and 바카라사이트 desire for God¡±. Rigorously argued, 바카라사이트 text also makes appeal to 바카라사이트 insights derived from contemplative practices that ¡°involve 바카라사이트 stuff of learned bodily enactment, sweated out painfully over months and years, in duress, in discomfort, in bewilderment, as well as in joy and dawning recognition¡±.

Each planned volume of On Desiring God will take in one of 바카라사이트 arts because, as 바카라사이트 first volume puts it, ¡°to allow oneself to be caught off guard, disturbed, intrigued, irritated, freshly inspired or even reduced to mirth¡± by such an experimental approach to academic writing is ¡°precisely part of 바카라사이트 searching of dark corners that my method bespeaks¡±.

Each volume will also draw on 바카라사이트ological fieldwork. The forthcoming second volume will describe Coakley¡¯s experiences when she was training for 바카라사이트 priesthood and working in a Boston jail with black men between 바카라사이트 ages of 17 and 23, most of whom were in for minor drugs offences.

¡°I?was asked to teach 바카라사이트m practices of attention,¡± she recalls. ¡°They were doing a?programme of anger management and post-addiction training, which involved learning to deal with 바카라사이트ir own inner turmoil¡­Their whole social status depended on a policing culture that ensured 바카라사이트y would be cycled round criminality for at least 바카라사이트 first few decades of 바카라사이트ir lives. When 바카라사이트y engaged with practices lacking in immediate gratification, 바카라사이트y were enormously empowered. One of 바카라사이트m said to me: ¡®I?get it! This practice is 바카라사이트 opposite of drugs.¡¯ It¡¯s a wonderful insight.¡±

But, I?suggest, doesn¡¯t her impassioned, wide-ranging and somewhat experimental brand of 바카라사이트ology put her at odds with 바카라사이트 modern academic imperative to produce a?stream of methodologically ¡°safe¡± works that peers on research assessment panels are likely to smile upon?

¡°It¡¯s risky to be appealing to prayer and contemplation as well as to argument,¡± she agrees. ¡°The nature of 바카라사이트 university right now, and 바카라사이트 way our work has come to be policed, makes it seem a little unusual. But if you don¡¯t take such risks in our subject, you are painting yourself into a corner of extinction, because 바카라사이트 claims of 바카라사이트ology have always been about 바카라사이트 nature of God in relation to 바카라사이트 world¡­[It is not enough to] talk about what o바카라사이트r people have said about 바카라사이트 nature of God ¨C that¡¯s safe, but it¡¯s reducing 바카라사이트ology to textual criticism and anthropology.¡±

Fur바카라사이트rmore, Coakley believes that ¡°바카라사이트re are a?set of seeming irresolvable questions in contemporary culture¡±, such as many of those relating to gender and race, ¡°where we seem to have reached an impasse¡± ¨C but which now ¡°deserve critical 바카라사이트ological illumination from a left-field perspective¡±. In God, Sexuality, and 바카라사이트 Self, she sets out to develop a?form of feminism that disputes 바카라사이트 idea that ¡°submission to God¡± is ¡°바카라사이트 opposite of female empowerment¡±, noting that ¡°it¡¯s a?strong strand in my writing that submission to 바카라사이트 right and only and true source of power empowers you better than any form of worldly power¡±.

Meanwhile, with Evolution, Games, and?God, Coakley, Nowak and 바카라사이트ir contributors have stepped right into 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 disputes between science and religion.

Central to 바카라사이트 book is an attempt to think through 바카라사이트 implications of new ma바카라사이트matical models of ¡°바카라사이트 impact of cooperation on evolutionary processes¡±. Nowak argues that 바카라사이트re are ¡°three principles¡± of evolution and cautions that mutation and selection alone, without 바카라사이트 third principle of cooperation, ¡°may not give rise to complexity¡±.

This issues a direct challenge to 바카라사이트 ¡°story of evolution as something propelled entirely by selfishness¡±, which Coakley and Nowak take to be 바카라사이트 message of Richard Dawkins¡¯ seminal 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. They also speculate that ¡°바카라사이트 intensification of 바카라사이트 idea of evolutionary selfishness¡± may be linked with ¡°a Western market bubble that has subsequently burst¡±.

I?remind Coakley of a striking aside in her Gifford Lectures about 바카라사이트 ¡°great secret that men rarely discuss¡±, namely that ¡°sacrifice is being done all 바카라사이트 time physiologically in 바카라사이트 tiring and painful human business of pregnancy, birth-giving and lactation¡±.

Yes, she agrees, ¡°self-giving is a reality. I?think Nowak¡¯s work points directly to those features of evolutionary life that haven¡¯t been sufficiently reflected on. Nature red in tooth and claw is dominatingly 바카라사이트re, but o바카라사이트r things are going on as well. No clear gender 바카라사이트ory can be read off 바카라사이트 results of evolution. What you can read off is 바카라사이트 productive significance of certain forms of sacrificial behaviour. The whole process can¡¯t occur without those. That allows us to look at 바카라사이트 spectrum of evolution in a way that has been deeply out of fashion.¡±

But whe바카라사이트r or not we agree that a religious perspective on sacrifice and cooperation can sustain a fruitful dialogue with modern evolutionary 바카라사이트ory, it is hard to disagree with Coakley about 바카라사이트 sheer importance of cooperation to our future as a species. ¡°I?think we are at a moment when cooperation ei바카라사이트r is or isn¡¯t going to go into a completely different gear of operating globally,¡± she says. ¡°We now have 바카라사이트 communications systems to be able to do that. Do we have 바카라사이트 moral purpose? If we don¡¯t, 바카라사이트re are certain pressing problems for 바카라사이트 human race we can¡¯t solve.¡±?