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Emergent creationism: another option in the origin of the soul debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2014

JOSHUA R. FARRIS
JOSHUA R. FARRIS*
Affiliation:
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, BS8 1TH, UK e-mail: jfarris@bristol.ac.uk
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Abstract

In the debate over the theology of the soul's origin, there have traditionally been three broad views on origins. These include creationism, traducianism, and Origen's pre-existence view. In the recent philosophy of religion and mind literature, William Hasker posits an alternative view of origins called emergent substance dualism. As a contribution to this discussion, I put forward one novel option as a via media between simple creationism and Hasker's emergent substance dualism, wherein it has relevant overlapping features found in the two contrary positions. I suggest that this view is a variation of creationism like emergentism where the material part (i.e. the brain) has some positive causal role in the soul's coming to be as a discrete effect of one divine cause. I argue that emergent creationism (as I call it) is a viable option deserving the attention of philosophers and theologians.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 321 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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