Philip Hefner: Created Co-Creator

With the conclusion of this academic year, Philip Hefner will retire from his full-time position as Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. The colleagues who write for this special double issue (June and August, 2001)* represent the pervasiveness of Hefner’s influence in both the scientific and ecclesial communities and his vision of the church as the "well of possibility" that can image the hopes of God for the world and the hopes of the peoples of the world for God. No expression has more characterized the theology of Hefner in recent years than the understanding of the human as a created co-creator (as will be seen in many of the following essays); no better term could be imagined to describe his own being.

While I did my usual editing in preparing this issue, I need to acknowledge and applaud the work of Vitor Westhelle, who, with the assistance of Neva Hefner and others, came up with the list of people to be invited to write for this Festschrift and secured their commitment to contribute to this undertaking. Without his painstaking and industrious efforts, this double issue would simply have been an impossibility. We are all in his debt.

Introduction

In a brief essay, Vitor Westhelle acknowledges his own debt to his "doctor father" Philip Hefner and to the contributors themselves, who are friends, associates, former students, and all colleagues of the retiree.

William E. Lesher suggests that Philip Hefner has put "legs" on the traditions of the faith and led them into deep engagement with scientific ways of thinking. Listening to and considering the sciences for the sake of proclaiming the gospel are special qualities of Hefner’s theological style. Many thinking pastors have found a special friend, guide, and advocate in Philip Hefner. Human freedom in relation to our role as co-creators refers to a condition in which humans face the necessity of making choices and constructing stories that contextualize and justify those choices. Philip Hefner has made what was foolishness to the Greeks less foolish, and the world of science less threatening to the church.

Science and Religion

David A. Pailin suggests that the relationship between scientific and religious forms of understanding appears to have taken at least nine distinct forms according to whether the two ways of understanding have been considered to be mutually supportive, in fundamental conflict, such that one should now supplant the other, alternative ways of expressing the same understanding, separate ways of understanding the world that are logically independent of each other, more or less independent answers to distinct questions, mutually complementary ways of understanding, in fruitful dialogue, and seeking integration in an all-embracing and coherent mode of understanding. The discussion of these nine forms is fitted out with appropriate examples.

Arthur Peacocke observes that there are references to and concepts explicating the realities of God, nature, and humanity that can be intelligibly communicated and shared and assented to. He calls this "public truth." Postmodernism offers a serious challenge to the possibility of such "public truth" today. The natural sciences have proved a bastion against the fashionable gales of postmodernism, and this may encourage the revival of the use of reason in other intellectual pursuits, including theology. The article challenges "seekers" and Christian theists to seek public truth. If Christianity does not dare to formulate its belief using the criteria of reasonableness, its demise and diminishing influence in the serious thinking of Western society will continue. This calls for a radical reappraisal of the "Christ of faith" in the light of the evidence concerning the "Jesus of history." The affirmation that in Jesus we encounter an incarnation of the transcendent God does not depend on the virgin birth, nor does an affirmation of Jesus’ resurrection depend on an empty tomb.

Carol Rausch Albright discusses "complexity"—the presence of a web of interlinked and active connections. In nature, things become more and more complex under their own power. One of the important hallmarks of complexification is that it gives rise to phenomena that are new, which could not be predicted by observing their predecessors. The brain is the most complex natural system in the universe, for its size. One interpretation of Michelangelo’s picture of creation focuses on the artist’s belief that the "divine part" we receive from God is the intellect. This, to Michelangelo, is the image of God. To pursue the image of God in our lives we need to get rid of compoundity (being pulled in many directions at once) and build complexity by making our personal relationship and large social arrangements as loving and just as possible.

Jim Moore proposes that the original source of religious ideas and concerns can be found in the issues of life and death. The "axial" period from 3000 BCE to the first centuries of the common era produced a wide range of religious traditions, preserved in Israelite religion, Hellenistic philosophy, Vedantic Hinduism, and Confucian/Tao philosophy. Theology must be able to introduce a structure for critique and open-ended development in order to incorporate new wisdom. Theology in this view carries on the Augustinian belief that there is no possible ultimate conflict between theology and science. Radical monotheism, which produces a notion of the creator God, has also in the case of Christianity produced a notion of the redeeming God. All our questions stem from our need to discover what is, what will be, and where we have come from.

Since his retirement from a career in science, Thomas L. Gilbert has been an associate director, with Philip Hefner, of the center for religion and science based at LSTC. In that capacity he has carried on a "quest for meaning," exploring the interplay between that knowledge we call religion and that knowledge we call science. The primary purpose of science is to develop and test theories that enable reliable predictions. Gilbert argues that the primary role of theology is to articulate the meanings of sacred writings, rituals, myths, and traditions in a way that makes these sources credible in the context of contemporary culture. The quest for meaning boils down to specific questions: How should we live? And why? How does the world work? Both science and religion have much to contribute to the "Central Limit Question": What guides the course of events in the universe? The trick is in reconciling their answers to this question.

Antje Jackelén argues that the current critique of the Enlightenment is too one-sided. We need to shift from an absolute notion of reason to a relative understanding of rationality. Classical epistemology treated reality like a car that we could put on a hydraulic lift to examine and repair. Today we realize that reality behaves more like a car that can never be stopped and put on a ramp—examination and service have to be done while the car is moving. Creation does not seem to develop in the direction of increasing simplicity, but towards higher levels of complexity. Should God, then, be understood in terms of complexity as well? Examples from both science and religion show that the dynamics between absoluteness and relativity and between simplicity and complexity offer new perspectives on various issues.

Theology and Nature

John Polkinghorne notes that Philip Hefner has sought to maintain a judicious balance between genetic and cultural influences in his account of human nature. The article itself looks closely at what is the origin of information and what this implies about the nature of reality. We must recognize the rich and many-layered character of the reality within which we live. Aesthetic experience is encounter with a further dimension of reality of a kind distinct from the physical or biological. The idea of natural selection has explanatory powers, but it is not a key that unlocks all secrets. It is a coherent hope that the information pattern that is me will be remembered by God at my death, held in the divine memory, and ultimately reconstituted through the great divine eschatological act of resurrection at the Last Day. Our experience of hope is fundamental to our encounter with the transcendental dimension of the sacred.

John R. Albright explores the co-creative aspect of humans in the area of science. Human beings create not only new ideas, but also new materials (urea, silicon carbide, synthetic rubber, plastics, nylon). They are capable of converting energy to matter and the reverse. Through genetics, humans create genuinely new organisms, and they have attempted to create life (cloning), robotics, and artificial intelligence. Breeders of plants and animals have long been in the business of genetic modification by means of artificial selection. The article also investigates the place of myth and ritual in co-creation. Co-creators of many types have flourished, especially in the science of recent centuries, and this fact deserves to be celebrated as a gift from God to our species.

Franklin Sherman comments on the importance of interconnectivity as manifested in his work with a web site devoted to Jewish-Christian relations. The era of electronic communication has demonstrated the same dialectic of Creation and Fall, of essential goodness and existential distortion that we find throughout God’s "good creation." A second theme is closely related: the quest for commonality amidst all the diversity of that interconnected world. Very many religious traditions, if not all, also practice ritual vocalization—chanting, shouting, reciting, or praying in a specific tone. Such vocalization creates a special mood or induces a special level of consciousness both in the one vocalizing and in the hearers. Interconnectivity makes possible the quest for commonality, and in the quest for commonality we realize some of the positive potential of interconnectivity.

Ann Pederson insists that frameworks for thinking about issues in religion and science begin with the integration of faith and praxis. Our modern myths have displaced humanity from the land, nature from grace, ethics from theology, and praxis from faith. But the gospel can free us from the bondage of living at the center so that we can attend to those on the margins. Hefner’s notion of the created co-creator puts praxis and ethics at the heart of this theological agenda. From our common evolutionary ancestry to our future yet to be, we are called to be a part of God's creative process, of ongoing creation.

Alex Garcia Rivera suggests that the key to a non-reductive reading of Nature is beauty, and that the human spirit must be reckoned with in any account of Nature. The next phase of the science-religion dialogue ought to include an aesthetics perspective. Beauty and the beautiful are key elements in the science and theology dialogue. The human observer is not simply a camera that records a natural event, for the observer also brings vision to that event and alters what is observed. The material and spiritual dimensions brought together in the aesthetic observer suggest an intimacy akin to the intimacy between a lover and the beloved. The contemplation of Nature by the human creature reveals the conditions for Christian faith. Theology appears to have forgotten the wonder and beauty of Nature as an intrinsic component of revelation, and by forgetting the beautiful, science has also missed the importance of the human creature in experiencing beauty.

Anne Kull considers the views of Donna Haraway regarding the relationship between human beings and nature in our technological age. Haraway believes human beings have become "cyber netic organisms," or cyborgs, through the marriage of machine and life. The cyborg has as much affinity with technology as it does with the wilderness. Cyborgs are hybrid entities and have the potential to disrupt present dualisms that set the natural body in opposition to the technologically recrafted body. Nature is a co-creation among humans and non humans, machines, and other partners. The concept of the cyborg makes it possible to affirm our createdness with a new specificity, along with the creativeness of the rest of nature. Since the incarnation of Jesus is so contrary to common sense, it is useful for critical positioning and for destabilizing categories.

Lora M. Gross recalls that much of the history of Israel and Christianity is shaped by protest and reform. Ecofeminist thought, which sees women and nature connected, provides a framework for Christians to address the ecological crisis. Critical analysis of the violation of women and nature under the conditions of patriarchy makes it possible for people to understand that Christian resistance means the dismantling of the structures of male domination. Earth-healing begins with valuing nature by resisting environmental destruction and working for sustainable use of natural resources. Compassion in "coming home" on the earth means softening the harsh distinctions between our human identity and the identity of non-human nature. Resistance to ecological degradation is a vital building block for further resistance for generations to come.

Theology and Culture

Robert Benne concludes that maintaining a discernibly Christian higher education presupposes a confidence in the Christian account of life and reality in the face of other interpretations, especially those of the Enlightenment. The twenty-first century may be friendlier to Christian higher education than was the twentieth since there has been a general loss of coherence in our American culture and unsettling challenges to the "Enlightenment project." Certain schools have held the Christian account as normative for their educational endeavor and therefore maintained a distinct Christian identity and mission. The full-fledged Christian college makes the Christian account comprehensive, unsurpassable, and central for its life and mission. Schools that have lost a robust connection can re-engage their sponsoring religious heritage by giving the Christian account an assured voice in the educational process along with other voices.

Don Browning argues that symbols function to integrate mature and immature aspects of the human psyche. Thomas Aquinas conceived of the sacrificial love of Christ for the church as a model for male behavior and a balance for male reluctance to bond with their children and wives. For Thomas monogamy made possible a new level of care and investment by fathers for their children, but also a new level of equality and friendship between husbands and wives. From a sociological perspective, the most dramatic change in families throughout the modern world is the growing absence of biological fathers from families and children. The religio-cultural task of our time is to create a symbolic and social environment that will produce responsible fathers and husband and men and women capable of an equal-regard marriage.

Albert Pero asks what happens to our humanity when the name of the game is not only to grab more power for oneself, but when that power is perceived as salvation itself. African-American Christianity has within it the potential to be a voice proclaiming justice, integrity, and freedom in a postmodern world and in correlation with the sciences. What unites all of us is our identity, that is, our character traits; what actualizes our diversity is the way a given culture externalizes these character traits. The Black Christian Tradition is a correlation of the western Christian tradition with scientific positions outlined in this article and governed by the principle of non-racism. True discipleship is not cultural uniformity; true discipleship is an affirmation of cultural diversity.

Robert W. Bertram concludes that there is no saving the world’s sinners without saving their world along with them, beginning with that part of the world which is closest to them, their own bodies. When saving the sinners’ world without saving them is the best than can be hoped for, then, it is the very heart of the Christian pathos to help them save at least their bodies. When nine of the ten lepers did not give glory to God, Jesus did not show the slightest regret that he had done for them what he did. Healing, even short-term healing, and not only of believers but of sinners generally, still defines the ministry of Christ’s followers, especially his "laity." The article offers theses for discussion and closes with a poignant "take" on the issue at hand as the author slides down an MRI tunnel.

Jose David Rodriguez uses the story of the Magi to reflect on the centennial of Lutheranism in Puerto Rico. The passion of the early missionaries to spread the gospel was sometimes confused with the ideological, social, and political structure of North American colonial power, but these early pioneers also demonstrated a faith that was greater than that of the church which failed to support them. It was an African-Caribbean humble tailor, however, who provided the location and recruited the people to hold the first Protestant service in the city of San Juan. The story of the Magi has provoked the imagination of believers in all ages to witness to the extraordinary presence of God in our midst.

Religion and Existence

Kurt Hendel illustrates the creative interplay between theology and culture in the early years of the Reformation by focusing on Luther’s theological response to the advocates of iconoclasm. Luther’s series of eight sermons in 1522 and his treatise "Against the Heavenly Prophets" effectively repelled the iconoclastic efforts of Karlstadt and Zwingli. Luther concluded that images were only a problem if they involved idolatry and and warned that iconoclasm was a new form of works righteousness. During the 1520s Luther became an ardent defender of the principle that the finite is capable of holding the infinite and that the material is a vehicle of the divine. Artistic endeavors and visual images were affirmed by Luther’s followers, and they became integral parts of the worship space and of worship experience.

Ralph W. Klein looks into the history of ancient synagogues and their use of artistic symbolism, not only for what they embody about the correlation of Israel’s history with the order of the cosmos, but also for the light they shed on what is known as the "genealogical vestibule" in the first nine chapters of the book of 1 Chronicles. The myth of a totally consistent Jewish aniconism was shattered in the last century by the excavation of ancient synagogues, with their use of the zodiac and of pictures of Helios the sun god. An inscription in a synagogue at En-gedi shows that the structure of the universe, represented by zodiac and calendar and by the pre-flood ancestors, and the specifically Jewish figures, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the friends of Daniel, do not exclude each other, but belong integrally together. The bridge between science and religion and between nature and grace has an antecedent in a synagogue floor and a Jewish universal vision that is fifteen hundred years old. This same proposal may have been anticipated by the Chronicler, who wrote a thousand years before the synagogue inscription.

Richard P. Busse acknowledges that the law attempts to locate science in our society as public, shared, and authoritative knowledge while it treats religion as private, exclusive, and unreliable. The Scopes trial became a battleground where commitment to a common purpose of a nation founded on biblical faith was pitted against a minority point of view that defended individual liberty, critical thought, and scientific authority. The net effect was to reduce evolution to a "theory" or "hypothesis" for the next thirty years until the race into space led to restructuring American science education and including evolution in the curriculum. The changed cultural positions of religion and science in our day can be illustrated by two Supreme Court cases: Roe v. Wade and Compassion in Dying v. Washington. In "Roe" the court used science to decide the religious and moral questions of when life begins. While religious groups may be pleased with the court’s decision against assisted suicide in "Compassion in Dying," religious faith did not inform the court’s rationale in any explicit way.

William Irons addresses the question of the origin and function of religion in the course of human evolution. The real core of religion is commitment and the rituals and sacred stories that express that commitment. Following William James, the author holds that religion consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto. Religion, more than anything else, has motivated basic morality during most of human history and it continues to play this role for most people in the contemporary world. Religions are built up over many generations and consist of numerous symbols that create, express, and maintain commitments that are essential to human social life. There is no good evidence that moving from religion to secular philosophy will eliminate all bad moral conventions.

Viggo Mortensen reviews the role of transnational corporations and technology in the process of globalization. One of the most pronounced negative effects of globalization is the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. A number of religious movements, including fundamentalism, ethnification, and primitivism, attempt to mediate between the global and the local. Globalization from above needs to be met by a globalization from below, advocating diversity as a criterion for sustainable development. The church’s mission to the globalized world must mix prophetic critique with a positive message of salvation. A global ethic was proposed at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993, which identified a fundamental consensus on binding values, similar to the intent of the Golden Rule. Such a proposal needs to be accompanied with a concern for interreligious dialogue.

Richard Perry observes that elements of Philip Hefner’s theology provide categories and space for constructing a social ethic of liberation for the 21st century. Social analysis, for example, is an opportunity to gain an understanding of the relationships between the economic, political, social, and religious dimensions of the world. Hefner’s notion of the created co-creator recognizes that we are what we have been and we are what we will become through the evolutionary process. A social ethic of liberation, especially in the African American Christian community, embraces a myth that shares stories about the fundamental goodness of God and the equality of all humans. It also ritualizes this fundamental worldview through responsible action by its members, in accommodation or protest. The church is called to be a place open to God’s future transformation throughout creation. For the church, especially the ELCA, newness and change get focused in terms like multiculturality, plurality, or diversities.

Promises and Ambiguities

Vitor Westhelle recounts how Schleiermacher revisited the question of original sin. This reformulation of the doctrine is instructive for other attempts to restate it, by Hefner himself, by Tillich, and by Liberation Theology in its notion of structural sin. Schleiermacher’s anthropological optimism resisted the notion of an original corruption at the core of human nature. For Schleiermacher, what causes sin in the individual is the result of her or his social insertion (or lack of it). Ironically, Schleiermacher had a hard time explaining the first sinful act of the original human pair since he believed that the originating sin presupposes the corporate society. Augustine himself understood Adam as a collective representative of all humanity! Schleiermacher, however, was able to break with the Augustinian understanding of original sin without falling prey to Pelagianism or Manicheanism. Hefner differs from Schleiermacher in considering altruism and sacrifice as a central symbol of what human beings should be doing with their lives.

Willem B. Drees observes that we humans are credulous, looking for something to hold on to, when life becomes difficult, but we prefer to begin with strategies that play by regular professional standards and that depend on the normal working of the world. Does God fill up the gaps in our knowledge, or is reality as we normally understand it God at work? Many practice an instrumental type of religiosity: God is supposed to help us when we need help, but to keep out of the way as long as things are going well. In the Bible humans are not merely stewards who are to preserve what has been given, but they are called to abandon their old ways and to renew themselves and the world. Theology is about accepting things as they are and rejecting the way things are. Scientific thought is corrected by reference to facts; faith must contradict the oppressive force of facts. The article concludes with an appreciative appraisal of Philip Hefner’s contributions in religion and science.

Niels Henrik Gregersen discusses three scientific models that guide current research in explaining the emergence of the local pockets of life in the physical universe. God is the creator of creativity, and the human person is God’s created co-creator. The article distinguishes between three types of theology. "Theology 1" is nourished by concepts and metaphors of first-order belief, such as divine creation and blessing, and gives voice to the concerns of the lived Christian faith. "Theology 2" is able to re-describe the world of nature as explained by the sciences from the perspective of a religious tradition. The task of theology 2 is to generalize our notions of God and to allow an external perspective on religious beliefs. In this view, there is no contradiction between the notion of God’s creation and the scientific concept of the self-development of nature. The virtue of such "Theology 3" concepts as "divine design" or "divine action" is that they provide a common ground for discussing very general features of reality.

Paul Sponheim notes that contemporary theological consciousness is challenged to recognize the rise of the "other." A genuine engagement with the other will require a much deeper reading of experience than was to found in the classic, the modern, or the postmodern approaches, all of which are outlined in this article. While discernment will be essential, the wild-sounding voices of those on the edge cannot be routinely dismissed. The doctrine of creation out of nothing tells the Christian that there is no moment—past, present, or future—from which the Creator God can be evicted. While moral evil is real and against God, the Christian will remember that in the disturbing voice of the other, God may well be at work.

Eduardo Cruz asks whether Tillich’s notion of the demonic still has a meaningful role to play at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and he explores the predicaments of contemporary science through a case study of Carl Sagan. Some scientific promises have not been fulfilled, or their side effects were worse than their benefits. Sometimes the amelioration achieved obscures the demonic side of the creativity that led to this improvement. Since Sagan rejected religion very early in his life, he could not deal adequately with the demonic traits within and around his person. Only by participation in the Spiritual Presence do humanistic efforts resist demonic erosion and become freed from the fate of the unavoidable appearance of demonic elements. Sagan saw at the end of his life that this world is even more demon-haunted than before. This world cannot be overthrown by sheer rationality, but only by a Gestalt of grace.

Coda

Kathleen D. Billman writes of the profound impact Philip Hefner has had on the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Hefner has proposed that the founding vision for LSTC was a "liberal vision," marked by a sense of being part of a movement of transformation and progress in the church and excitement about the relationship between theological scholarship and the church’s engagement with the world. LSTC chose to live on the boundary. The church in Hefner’s vision is a community of unconditional belonging, and such a community is inclusive, not homogeneous. The church is also a well of possibility that can image the hopes of God for the world and the hopes of the peoples of the world for God. Philip Hefner will continue to sail on the turbulent sea, yet remain deeply connected with the port that is LSTC.
Bibliography of Philip Hefner

With this, our largest issue ever, we are laying claim to a significant portion of your summer time. We do that with a certain amount of glee, knowing what meat and vegetables are in this feast, as should be clear already from this appetizer, and hoping that this Festschrift will be a kind of dessert, though surely not the last course, let alone last word, from or about Philip Hefner, God’s created co-creator.

Ralph W. Klein, Editor

*The next issue of Currents will be the October issue, which we will mail early enough to supply our readers with Preaching Helps in a timely fashion.