Review article

Theology and Evolutionary Biology. Considerations Concerning Some Impulses of the Pope John Paul II for the Dialogue between Theology and the Theory of Evolution

Tonči Matulić ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Considerations of this article depend on impulses came out from two messages of the Pope John Paul II released in 1996. The first message was released on June 28th and addressed to twenty-seven scholars, participants of the Vatican Observatory Conference on evolutionary and molecular biology, which took place in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. This was the fourth conference in order and jointly sponsored by the Vatican Observatory, since 1935 the site of basic research in both observational and theoretical astronomy, and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), in Berkeley, California (USA). In the message focused on evolutionary and molecular biology the Pope did not mentioned explicitly neither the theory of evolution nor any data regarding molecular biology. The Pope stressed that scientific endeavor must be grounded in truth, confirming that the human person is the focus of creation's extraordinary dynamism and the supreme object of divine intervention. At the end the Pope prays for the members they may continue to pursue with professional expertise this important inter-disciplinary dialogue. The second message was released on October 22nd of the same year, and addressed to the Members of the Pontifical Academy of Science taking part in the Plenary Assembly. The main theme of this papal message is the theory of evolution and the dialogue between religion and natural sciences. He emphasized the catholic truth about the origin of man, citing his predecessors the popes Leo XIII and Pius XII. The first stated in his Encyclical Providentissiums Deus that truth cannot contradict truth, and the second stated in his Encyclical Humani Generis that there is no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith. This is so under two methodological conditions: the opinion on biological evolution should not be adopted as it were a certain, and »if the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God«. The Pope John Paul II repeated the same as still valid doctrine, but at the same time confirmed that the theory of evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis, it is a real theory. The theory of evolution must be interpreted, from the Pope's point of view, in accordance with the catholic doctrine on man which states that man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake (Gaudium et spes, n. 24) and in virtue of his spiritual soul, created immediately by God, man possesses a dignity of person, even in his body. Revelation teaches that man was created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen. 1, 27-29). This biblical passage contains the truth of faith, namely that every human being come into existence through an active divine action. For the Pope John Paul II the question of biological evolution is in nature epistemological one, because a theory which explains that phenomenon is a metascientific elaboration, distinct from the empirical evidence, but consistent with it. Next step of our considerations consists in posing a few questions that arise from these statements. And now the first question arise: is all this definitive — authoritative — position of the Church's magisterum, which cannot be further developed in accordance with the fact of biological evolution and its claim that a whole man was developed from the lower forms of life on earth? Namely, if we take seriously the Pope's recommendations for the continuation of the interdisciplinary dialogue between natural sciences, i.e. biological sciences, philosophy and theology, as we do, than we unavoidably meet, it seems to us, serious difficulty in dealing with two fundamentally different views on how human species appeared on the face of earth and on how each of us come into existence. The religious — catholic — truth contains the data of revelation: in substance, God immediately creates every human spiritual soul, and that means that between humans and other forms of life on earth there is an ontological leap. How we are obliged to deal with this conception? The biological -evolutionary — truth contains the data of empirical evidence: in substance, a whole man is developed from the living matter. Are there than two truths about the origin of man? Do we need now just to sum these two truths to get only one final truth that can be really called truth? If we accept that basically does exist only one truth, but that there are at least two ways or methodologies of research of that truth, than how is it possible to reconcile the two fundamentally opposing doctrines on how human species appeared on earth and how each human person come into existence? As we see, the problem is basically epistemological one, and it cannot be resolved without some substantial correction in both expressions of truth. The traditional theological doctrine on human spiritual soul needs, as we see it, slight correction in accordance with biblical conception of man as a whole. The modern theory of biological evolution of man needs, as we understand it, first to be emptied from all ideological interpretations for or against, whatever it may be, and second to push forward philosophical debate on looking for suitable interpretation of the presence of higher functions in human beings that make them really human persons in accordance with a long history of philosophical investigations and religious traditions we deal with in our everyday life.

Keywords

natural sciences; biology; theory of evolution; religion; philosophy; theology; man; soul; interdisciplinary dialogue

Hrčak ID:

28850

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/28850

Publication date:

8.4.2003.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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