ET Item 4: Evolving from MYTHeology to EARTHeology

Whence comes divinity consciousness, from myth or from earth? Myth is an unfolding story of human imagination; conscious Earth-life consciousness is the source of myth and divinity consciousness. But Old Testament myth has been made dogma by closed theological thinking, and evolution is denied by excluding it from theological consideration.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that mythology has no theological truth in it, only that theology should remain open to Earth-science insights. Abrahamic religion and culture root in Old Testament mythology/theology. Literal mytheology is fantasy theology. Belief in God is no myth, but is a consensus consciousness from time immemorial, even though regional history and experience construe different creation myths.

Cultural experience knows that writers use different techniques of writing for specific reasons, e.g., poetry, history, biography, mythologies, novels, etc. Personal prejudices and political purposes condition a writer’s thinking and objective. These human prejudices apply also in sacred writings of all times.

Credit post-Reformation Scripture scholars (other than Roman Catholic) for leading the way to applying scientific methods to Scripture interpretation. Not until Pope Pius XII (Encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu) was scientific methodology in interpreting Scripture given the blessing of Roman Catholicism. The Second Vatican Council went a step further and declared that the analysis and synthesis of new theological understanding in the light of evolutionary sense is a “matter as important as can be.” (Constitution IV, Gaudium et spes, Introduction, No 4).

The Genesis Creation Myth should be appreciated for what it is — the insight of another time, of another worldview. The Old Testament Creation Myth of Genesis isn’t adequate for every time because it doesn’t credibly inform evolving consciousness. A theme of cultural belief and political purpose persists in all genres of Old Testament writings, what is the presumption of patriarchal primacy and dominion culture. Women and nature together suffer common exploitation under the burden of this blighted male prejudice. Enlightened divinity consciousness opens to the equal-minded roles of females and males in evolving life. To ignore scientific consensus is to imperil ourselves in the closed culture of dogmatic fantasy, arrogant idolatry, and calculated alienation.

ET Item 3: Sexuality and Theology

Sexuality is the self-reproductive nature of life. Evolution Theology is about relational life, about female/male equivalency in Divinity Consciousness .(See” www.divinicom.com .Evolution is about the genetics of Earth-life and so is theological/religious consciousness. Sexuality is the root relationship of life and consciousness.

Arguably, the sexual abuse of women and nature is the most urgent "religious" problem of the times. What is sexual abuse? A woman’s answer to this question is probably very different from a man’s. Men are likely to qualify (justify) their answer in the Garden of Eden Mandate, “increase and multiply.” Women, on the other hand might be more nuanced in their answer and see the Second Mandate equally applicable.

The Second Mandate forbids the consumption of the vitality (fruit) of the Middle Tree. The “Tree in the Middle of the Garden” is collectively life’s diverse webs sustaining interdependent nature. Web-life vitality is a condition of human existence; humankind cannot increase and multiply except for life’s co-dependent webs. The excess success of one species — humankind — is destroying sustainable web-life. The specter of African mothers and children walking miles and miles through lifeless ecologies is a warning to global humankind, and a sign of excess humankind destroying self and nature. Male hierarchical putdown of females in religious culture is of-a-piece with abusive consumer exploitation of nature.

Evolution Theology brings to the surface of religious/cultural consciousness the single-most critical issue of the time, what is sexual abuse, the mutual waste of women and nature rooted in the same religious/political justification of male dominant sexual abuse.

ET Item 2: Categories of Closed Thinking

Though the Cosmos unfolds in sustainable patterns, it is not locked in fixed categories — rather it is in constant transformation at its deepest levels by way of wave/particle dynamics.

It is only the small-mindedness of human intelligence that fixes itself in categories of closed thinking — but even these are destined to collapse over time in the determined evolution of self-reflective consciousness.

Institutional religions invest in fixed categories and lose credibility when the deceits of fixations are exposed. Age is no handicap to newness, on the contrary, age is the condition of newness, of death, birth, redemption, resurrection — the way of Evolution Theology (ET).

The schism of cleaving the material from the spiritual, the body from soul, is irrational, counter-intuitive and self-destructive. The presumption that soul and body are distinct and separate realities is a fixated category of misinformed thinking. The self-identity of the human person is mangled by the ill-begotten schism of soul/body. The substance/energy of the Cosmos is the continuity reality of symbiotic evolution.

 Spiritual arrogance toward material nature enables the cultural sin of the corporate exploitation of nature, and ecological wasting. Ecological wasting is at the root of presently occurring economic collapses and global indebtedness. If we abuse the energy/substance of nature, we abuse ourselves. We can stop abusing ourselves by stopping our abuse of nature. Religions need redemption and so do cultures and nature.

Evolution Theology

From personal experience we know that personal intelligence evolves. This is true of every aspect of consciousness, including theological consciousness. Growing up coached by institutional religion, it is likely that we have a sense that theological consciousness is owned by and passed on by the church of our birth. The conflicts of religions, all of whom claim to speak the truth, cause us to pause and consider who owns religion, truth.

Conversations on personal religion here are an opportunity to share with others your personal sense of religious truth and to enlarge your faith inheritance from birth. For discussion topics you are invited to visit these websites: www.evolution101.org, www.secondenlightenment.org, www.divinicom.com, www.acolyte.gather.com