The Human Soul and Evolution: A Mimetic Perspective

In much of the theological discourse concerning human evolution, the emergence of the human “soul” is commonly treated as off limits from any naturalistic analysis, lest one reduce human uniqueness or the immortality of the soul. This article offers a naturalistic approach to the “soul's” emerg...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Haw, Christopher A. 1981- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge University Press 2021
In: New blackfriars
Year: 2021, Volume: 102, Issue: 1097, Pages: 41-74
Further subjects:B James Alison
B René Girard
B Religion and human evolution
B Mimetic Theory
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Summary:In much of the theological discourse concerning human evolution, the emergence of the human “soul” is commonly treated as off limits from any naturalistic analysis, lest one reduce human uniqueness or the immortality of the soul. This article offers a naturalistic approach to the “soul's” emergence in conversation with Catholic theological commitments, using René Girard's mimetic theory. I argue that locating “religion”—defined as the taboos, culture, and rituals that contained early human violence—as prior to cognition and language better orients our conceptions of what we mean by the human soul and how we evolved into our current form.
ISSN:1741-2005
Contains:Enthalten in: New blackfriars
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/nbfr.12475