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Event | 14 March 2022 17:30-18:30

Book Launch: Wounded Earth, Wounded Humanity

Key Details

Location:
Online
Topics:
Theology

Please note that this event has passed.

Type: Book launch

Format: Online

About: Join us in celebrating the joint book launch of Dr Celia Deane-Drummond's Shadow Sophia: The Evolution of Wisdom, Vol 2, and Professor Norman Wirzba's This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World.
The launch will consist of introductions to the texts by Dr Deane-Drummond and Professor Wirzba, followed by a panel discussion chaired by Dr Tim Howles. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end.

Panel:

  • Revd Dr Nick Austin, SJ (Master of Campion Hall)
  • Professor Mark Wynn (Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion, Faculty of Theology and Religion and Oriel College)
  • Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker (Associate Priest of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford)

Shadow Sophia: The Evolution of Wisdom, Vol 2 (from the publisher)
Why do humans who seem to be exemplars of virtue also have the capacity to act in atrocious ways? What are the roots of tendencies for sin and evil? A popular assumption is that it is our animalistic natures that are responsible for human immorality and sin, while our moral nature curtails and contains such tendencies through human powers of freedom and higher reason. This book challenges such assumptions as being far too simplistic. Through a careful engagement with evolutionary and psychological literature, Celia Deane-Drummond argues that tendencies towards vice are, more often than not, distortions of the very virtues that are capable of making us good.

This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World (from the publisher)
In a time of climate change, environmental degradation, and social injustice, the question of the value and purpose of human life has become urgent. What are the grounds for hope in a wounded world? This Sacred Life gives a deep philosophical and religious articulation of humanity's identity and vocation by rooting people in a symbiotic, meshwork world that is saturated with sacred gifts. The benefits of artificial intelligence and genetic enhancement notwithstanding, Norman Wirzba shows how an account of humans as interdependent and vulnerable creatures orients people to be a creative, healing presence in a world punctuated by wounds. He argues that the commodification of places and creatures needs to be resisted so that all life can be cherished and celebrated. Humanity's fundamental vocation is to bear witness to God's love for creaturely life, and to commit to the construction of a hospitable and beautiful world.