On the problem of the relationship between the Christian and evolutionary approaches in understanding anthropogenesis

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of correlation of Christian and scientific views on the emergence of man, the integrating link between which can be Christian philosophy. The starting point for this is the position of the “philosophy of unity” about the acquisition of holistic knowledge through the synthesis of religion, science and philosophy. Historical-genetic and comparative-historical methods are used, allowing not only to correlate the stages of human formation (and their interpreting concepts), but also to show their relationship. First of all, man is a soul, therefore anthropogenesis appears as soul genesis. From the point of view of Christianity, God created man perfect, but, as a result of the fall, he loses his perfection, dresses in “natural clothes”, becomes mortal. This post-Eden person can be determined by the initial stage of anthropogenesis. The reason that actualized the possibility and need of spiritual and bodily evolution was the image of God preserved in him and the memory of the lost paradise. The perfection of the soul finds expression in the complication of thought processes, the actualization of a sense of beauty, religious and moral ideas. The improvement of the body finds expression in the design of the “hominid triad”, the complication of the brain, the development of motor skills of the hand. Homo habilis can be considered the stage of the fall from which the ascent to the primordial state (anthropogenesis) begins. At the stage of homo habilis and homo erectus, mental perfection is expressed indirectly, through bodily perfection. The design of the “hominid triad” indicates the complication of mental and volitional processes. At the stage of homo sapiens and homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnon), spiritual perfection is already expressed in a direct form: the appearance of animism, ideas about the immortality of the soul, taboos. In the post-Eden story, two opposing lines are struggling: the ascent to paradise and the continued distance from it. The latter finds expression in the violation of moral norms, in conflicts leading to injuries and victims, in cruelty, blood feud, cannibalism. The confrontation of the Eden and the fallen also occurs within a person: between the primordial and the “darkened” planes of his soul. Characteristic of prehistory and history, man’s intention for perfection (perfect knowledge, justice, beauty) could only be embedded in him by a Perfect Creator. Anthropogenesis appears, first of all, as soul genesis. The formation of a person is a gradual “gathering” of his soul; which is correlated with the “inhaling” of the soul into the body by God, which has been stretched out for hundreds of thousands of years. With the actualization of the higher planes of the soul (reason, morality, feelings of beauty and love), soulgenesis turns into spiritogenesis. Spiritual qualities are an expression, at the human level, of the essential characteristics of the Creator. The actualization of these qualities marks the completion of anthropogenesis, which is a necessary basis for the “return” of man to his original state.

Keywords

• christianity
• the image of god
• man
• anthropogenesis
• soul
• body
• the man of eden
• the fall