Human Being and Becoming

Abstract

Much theology ignores anthropological studies and the centrality of evolutionary perspectives. Human beings' evolutionary changes are envisaged as bound up with interspecies relationships and theological discourse cannot afford to be narrowly anthropocentric. An analysis of both the differences and the common ground between humans and other animals in their intertwined and entangled evolutionary histories provides a provocative arena for a theological anthropology that is cognizant of such relationships rather than isolated from them. Here, we suggest recent anthropological research in ethnoprimatology and human-other animal studies combined with theoretical advances in thinking about human evolution opens up new ways of appreciating the deeper history of human becoming in the context of affiliation and interactions between human beings and other creaturely kinds. The prominent voices in Christian theology, at least those emerging from a Western, cultural context, have, accordingly, been those that focus in an exclusive way on particular questions about who human beings are and the goals for a fully human life.Amongst those standing in the Roman Catholic tradition, scholars that have been particularly influential in this arena are Karl

Towards integrative anthropology again and again: disorderly becomings of a (biological) anthropologist

“…Since 2012 I have continued my collaborations with the humanities, and specific philosophers and theologians in particular, and they have been highly productive in the form of scholarship and in expanding my intellectual landscape and impact (see Deane-Drummond and Fuentes 2014; Deane-Drummond, Arner, and Fuentes 2016; Fuentes and Visala 2017; and Visala and Fuentes 2015).…”