The Redemption of Evolution

I have been posting about Evolution Sunday, which serves as a call to bring science and faith into conversation. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the creative presence of God within creation. But Jurgen Moltmann reminds us of the dark side of evolution. Evolution involves by its very nature selection, which means some will be left behind. In other words, evolution has its victims, those who cannot adapt.

Moltmann offers a counterpoint to Teilhard de Chardin’s celebration of Christ as the driving force of evolution – in other words Christ is the beginning of the divinization of the universe, the goal of evolution. Such a view led Teilhard to celebrate even the atomic bomb that dropped on Hiroshima, because it was evidence of humanity’s scientific forward progress. But is it?

Moltmann offers a different perspective, one that sees Jesus not as the goal of evolution, but its redeemer. In doing so, Moltmann puts out a caution light and reminds us that there is a dark side to all of this. Looking at this eschatologically, Moltmann speaks of the new creation, a redeeming of the victims of selection. Evolution moves forward into the future, which is what Teilhard celebrated, but redemption moves from the future back into the past.

Using Colossians 1:20 as his focus point, he speaks of Christ as the means of the reconciliation of all things – in heaven and on earth. And so, there is a counterpoint – not to the science of evolutionary biology – but to our trust in it to be our salvation. Because of it's dark side, that which is left behind by the process of natural selection, there remains the need for redemption. And for Moltmann and for me, that redemption, that means of reconciliation is found in Jesus the Christ, the one in whom the Word of God chose to dwell bodily (John 1:1-14).


Ref: Jurgen Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today’s World. Fortress Press, 1994, pp. 99-106.

Comments

tchittom said…
Great meditation on JCFTW. Come join us at www.jurgenmoltmann.com!

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