Original Selfishness: Original Sin And Evil in the Light of Evolution (Ashgate Science and Religion) [Hardcover]

Daryl P. Domning (Author), Monika K. Hellwig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0754653153 | ISBN-13: 978-0754653158 | Publication Date: February 2006

This book defends a startling idea: that the age-old theological and philosophical problems of original sin and evil, long thought intractable, have already been solved. The solution has come from the very scientific discovery that many consider the most mortal threat to traditional religion: evolution. Daryl Domning explains in straightforward terms the workings of modern evolutionary theory, Darwinian natural selection, and how this has brought forth life and the human mind. He counters objections to Darwinism that are raised by some believers and emphasizes that the evolutionary process necessarily enforces selfish behavior on all living things. This account of both physical and moral evil is arguably more consistent with traditional Christian teachings than are the explanations given by most contemporary 'evolutionary' theologians themselves. The prominent theologian, Monika Hellwig, dialogues with Daryl Donning throughout the book to present a balanced reappraisal of the doctrine of original sin from both a scientist's and theologian's perspective.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Daryl P. Domning is a paleontologist, anatomist, and evolutionary biologist whose 100-odd technical publications over the last 30-plus years have dealt mainly with fossil and living marine mammals. Over the past decade he has developed (partly in response to the creationist challenge) an additional interest in the theological implications of evolution. A brief statement of his ideas on original sin (effectively, a summary of this book) was published in the Jesuit magazine America in 2001. He is a member of the science-religion faculty discussion group of the Washington Theological Consortium, which is currently the recipient of a 3-year Templeton Foundation Local Societies Initiative grant to develop a series of adult-education discussion guides on various science-religion topics and to hold a related series of public seminars. Because of the advanced state of his book project, it was selected by the group as the basis for their first public seminar (held in March 2003). Together with bible scholar and Washington Theological Union faculty member Fr. Joseph Wimmer, he has also abridged the book to form the first discussion guide in the projected series. He is also a regular participant in the annual Cosmos and Creation Conferences held at Loyola College in Baltimore, and a member of the Board of Advisors for that series. Dr Monika K. Hellwig is a prominent Catholic theologian, former President of the Catholic Theological Society of America, retired Landegger Distinguished University Professor of Theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., USA, and author of numerous books. She is presently the President/CEO of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Co (February 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754653153
• ISBN-13: 978-0754653158
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,306,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reconciliation between Darwinian Evolution and Christianity is now at hand..., September 2, 2006

By 

Stephen J. Godfrey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Original Selfishness: Original Sin And Evil in the Light of Evolution (Ashgate Science and Religion) (Hardcover)

Daryl Domning has written one of the most important books I have ever read! Having wrestled for 30 years with all the religious questions raised by the Creation/Evolution debate, I can honestly say that this book has finally brought resolution. I now understand why our Universe has to be autonomous. Domning shows why and how natural selection, chance, mutations, God's selfless love, our free will, "physical" and moral evil, selfishness, and salvation are inextricably linked. I have not read a book that has given me more ah-ha moments...ever! I was thrilled and exhilarated at the strength of the intellectual arguments that allowed my emotions to follow unreservedly.
Having grown up in a young-Earth creationist family, I have known the intellectual and emotional struggles that exist when a believing Christian who also loves to explore God's Creation is faced with this (and as I now understand artificial) dilemma. Domning's contribution is no less than epic.

Stephen J. Godfrey
Curator of Paleontology
Calvert Marine Museum
Solomons, Maryland

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shedding Light On An Obscure Doctrine, September 16, 2008

By 

Brian Cowan (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Original Selfishness: Original Sin And Evil in the Light of Evolution (Ashgate Science and Religion) (Hardcover)

This book, in so far as I have understood it, sets out mainly to reconcile the Christian doctrine of original sin with the science of evolution. Its two authors situate themselves in the Christian tradition. Daryl Domning is a paleobiologist and an anatomist and the late Monika Hellwig was a theologian. The book is dedicated to the memory of the Jesuit paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whom the authors regard as a pioneer in evolutionary theology.

Professor Domning takes issue with the traditional Christian outlook which regards the human propensity to moral malfeasance (or sin) as the consequence of a first or original sin committed by Adam and Eve, the first two human beings on our planet.

As Domning sees it, the human inclination to act immorally arises from an original selfishness, an innate inclination to benefit oneself no matter what the cost to others. This original selfishness, he tells us, has been legated down to us humans as an inheritance from our biological ancestors who have preceded us, on the planet, through a duration of roughly four billion years.

With the appearance of humankind, though, something new emerged upon the evolutionary scene: conscience. It is conscience that urges us to move away from such selfish ways as those involving violence, greed and deceptive manipulation, and to move toward such altruistic ways as peaceableness, contentment with sufficiency and honesty.

Original selfishness, Dr. Domning seems to be saying, was once functional in that it helped biological evolution survive until it reached the level of thinking life endowed with conscience, but is now dysfunctional in that it leads to such evils as military conflict, extreme poverty and toxic environmental conditions. One of the evolutionary tasks of humankind, at present, is, as it were, to convert evolution (in so far as this is possible) from its erstwhile selfish orientation to a new altruistic orientation.

To be sure, the book deals with several other themes related to the topic of original sin and, in my opinion, does so in a thought provoking way. Thus monogenism (the view that all of humankind has descended from a single first couple) is rejected. Also there is discussion of suffering and death, of the role of Christ as regards human salvation, and of the relationship of God to the evolving universe. And so on and so forth.

We may, or may not, agree with each and every proposal made by Domning and Hellwig. In my view, however, the issues which they deal with merit our serious consideration and their findings and reflections can prove helpful to us as we endeavour to make sense of various issues surrounding the traditional doctrine of original sin. From my perspective, these authors do shed light on what for some is an obscure doctrine.

Brian Cowan,
Ottawa, Canada.

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly thought-provoking, January 4, 2011

By 

Donald C. Maldari, S.J. (Syracuse, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Original Selfishness: Original Sin And Evil in the Light of Evolution (Ashgate Science and Religion) (Hardcover)

Original Sin and Selfishness is a brilliant exposition of evil, both ontic (physical) and moral, in light of Darwin's theory of evolution. Based upon the dynamic view of cosmogenesis rather than the traditional static one of cosmos, Daryl Domning offers the fascinating thesis that amoral evil in the form of selfishness is essential to the creation of a non-preprogramed creation through evolution until the dawn of self-consciousness that accompanied the appearance of humanity; with self-consciousness and conscience selfishness is revealed as morally evil. He demonstrates that the real significance of the Christian term "original sin" is not to be sought in a historical past event but in the challenge of today. Salvation history that burgeons into the Christ event is the only way for humanity to find release from the selfishness of which it is a natural product through the natural selection process of evolution. Baptism represents a radical conversion as it redefines what is good in the divine image of selfless love.

Two minor deficiencies of the work are the identification of the book's audience and an overstatement of his arguments for theodicy. The text spends quite a bit of time demonstrating the impossibility of the existence of two individuals named Adam and Eve; scholars who read this work already accept this reality. Considering the unfortunate inordinate price of the text, few casual readers will purchase it. Secondly Domning argues that Darwinian evolution is not only the way God creates, which is a fascinating proposition, but the only way God could have created. That God does create through evolution seems absolutely plausible; that God could not find another way of creating seems unnecessarily to limit the divine imagination to human epistemology.

Domning's work is an important contribution to the theology of creation and salvation based upon clearly expounded data from the natural sciences.

Associate Professor of Theology
Le Moyne College
Syracuse, NY