Review of Alone in the World? Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology

Abstract

J. Wentzel van Huyssteen is the James I. McCord Professor of Theology and Science at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dedicated to the historical integrity of the Christian intellectual tradition, he sees himself as a postfoundational philosophical theologian, one who must respond sensitively to the findings of contemporary science. In these Gifford Lectures, he explores the interdisciplinary relationship between theological anthropology and paleoanthropology, explicitly linking the traditional Christian doctrine of the imago Dei with contemporary scientific insights regarding human uniqueness. In Chapter 1, van Huyssteen sketches his basic epistemological stance. Repudiating the modern quest for bedrock foundations and the hope for absolute certainty, he remains committed to standards of rationality. Neither abstract nor universal, these standards are embodied in the skills of reasonable people, those who have learned how to exercise responsible judgment by tackling concrete, specific problems. Like many postmoderns, van Huyssteen respects the intellectual autonomy of individual disciplines. But he is no isolationist. Convinced that the epistemic standards and reasoning strategies of diverse fields are sufficiently intertwined to permit mutual engagement, he believes that interdisciplinary discourse is both possible and beneficial.