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1. Concept Since the term “evolution” embraces several dimensions, we cannot deal with it adequately without recognizing its various facets and clarifying precisely which of these are at issue in any given context. Four such facets are of particular importance: evolution as (1) an idea of change over time; (2) an idea of emergence, by which novelty arises from preceding entities and processes; (3) an idea that describes the origins of things, both proximate and ultimate; and (4) an idea of selection, explaining why things die or survive. Each of these facets deserves careful attention. 1.…

[German Version] I. Science – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Systematic Theology – IV. Ethics I. Science Although Darwinism may be thought of as referring to the version of evolutionary theory originating from C.R. Darwin (Desmond & Moore), it is in reality, however, difficult to agree on any more precise definition. Darwin's own works on evolution involved several different mechanisms for br…

[German Version] I. Life – II. Work – III. Philosophical, Religious, and Social Approaches (Mar 14, 1879, Ulm – Apr 18, 1955, Princeton, NJ) I. Life Einstein grew up in Munich as the son of an electrical machinery manufacturer. At age 15, when the family moved to Milan, Einstein emigrated to Switzerland and finished his schooling in Aarau. After he graduated from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute, he taught at a school briefly before receiving an appointment in the Swiss patent office in Bern. Einstein was professor in Zürich, Prague, and Berlin ( inter alia, Director of the Kai…

[German Version] I. Theology and Science – II. Systematic Theology – III. Ethics I. Theology and Science Emergence (from Lat. emergere, “to arise”), an idea that describes the appearance of novel and higher forms, represents an alternative to mechanistic, vitalist (Vitalism and mechanism), reductionist, and preformationist explanations. Emergence claims that complex structures proceed from simpler and/or chaotic circumstances, displaying both innovations and discontinuities and developing in a manner not attributable to earlier conditions. The works of Wilhelm C…

[German Version] (Jun 21, 1911, Somerville, MA – May 8, 1997, Chicago). From 1964 to 1975 Burhoe was the professor of theology at the Meadville/Lombard Theological School, Chicago. He founded the Institute of Religion in an Age of Science in 1956, the journal …

[German Version] (Jun 4, 1940, Trenton, NJ – Aug 2, 1998, Philadelphia, PA), professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. D'Aquili pioneered in research that he himself termed “biogenetic structuralism,” which correlates brain states to ritual and mystical experience in order to develop explanatory models of brain function. He developed theories …

[German Version] I. Science – II. Philosophy of Religion I. Science In 1973, Brandon Carter introduced the expression “anthropic …

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[German Version] I. The Concept – II. Comparative Religion – III. Old Testament – IV. Ethnology and Theology I. The Concept The scholarly disciplines of ethnology, anthropology, social psychology, and cultural semiotics are closely related. The specific terminology employed in these disciplines differs at a number of important points in German- and English-speaking countries…