Karl E Peters

[Alex]

http://karlpeters.net




Karl E. Peters is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL and former adjunct professor of philosophy, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT. He also is the co-editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, and is a founder, organizer, and first President of the University Unitarian Universalist Society in central Florida. His scholarly research and teaching focuses on issues in science and religion, including the concept of God and evolution, epistemology in science and religion, world religions and the environment, and religious and philosophical issues in medicine.

In Transformations, Peters writes – “Humanity religions exhibit many different ways of thinking about the sacred. Sometime it is thought of as many personal spiritual beings that underlie the working of Nature and human life. Sometimes the sacred is thought of as one supreme reality – the God of Western monotheism, or the Tao, in Chinese thought. The sacred can also be identified as the creativity in Nature”. He references the thinking of Arthur Peacocke who had developed a form of scientific Christian naturalism that stressed the immanence or ever presence of a God in the universe.

In Dancing With the Sacred, Peters proposes that the sacred is the dance of life (a form of god). He develops an understandable naturalistic theism in which the Universe is not governed by a personal supernatural God. This determination is not atheistic for the concept of the divine is preserved in a system of non-personal processes within the natural world. Nature produces variations that generate new aspects of existence that are creative but without design. His thesis compliments the thinking of theologians such as John B. Cobb, Arthur Peacocke, and Ted Peters and American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.

Peters writes that:
The best kind of dancing is when no one leads, when the leading is a back and forth sharing, when each party responds to the subtle movements, touches, gestures, and words of the other(...) Dancing with no one leading, with no goal or purpose but the dance itself, is a good metaphor for portraying our contemporary scientific understanding for evolution on our planet.

Peters has been for many years a member and lecturer at the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science where he has been active in the development of Religious Naturalism. He has six times served as co-chair of the annual conference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_E._Peters

[Alex]

HUMAN SALVATION IN AN EVOLUTIONARY WORLD VIEW:
AN EXPLORATION IN CHRISTIAN NATURALISM
By Karl E. Peters
July 2012
http://karlpeters.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Peters-Hum-Salv-EvWV-ZY-web-IFS-FIGURE-2012-07-06.pdf

Abstract

In the context of an evolutionary world view, this essay proposes that humans need "salvation," understood as restoring and maintaining well-being or functioning well. Humans are embedded in, embodiments of, and emergent creative-creatures of the universe. We have evolved also as ambivalent creatures--capable of doing good, harm, and standing by while harm is being done. There are multiple factors, such as genetic, neurological, and child evelopmental factors, that lead to malfunctioning and harmful consequences. There are also multiple religious and secular approaches that help restore well-being. I will develop a view of Jesus as a "religious genius," an exemplar who, grounded in a direct experience of God, taught an alternative wisdom of undiscriminating love and engaged non-violent political activism against the primary domination system of his day, the Roman empire. Christians and others can follow Jesus by engaging in a set of meditative practices that facilitate well-well being out of which compassion for others and a passion for justice flows. Universal love rooted in Jesus is compatible with an evolutionary perspective that all humans on our planet are part of a natural family.



Alex's comment:  Exactly.