Stephen Downs

His home page at Flinders University

Stephen Downs is married with two teenage children. He lectures in philosophy and theology for Catholic Theological College, the Adelaide College of Divinity and Flinders University. His research interests include philosophy and contemporary culture, world religions and theology and the arts.

Some Novel Suggestions about Religious Life in a post-Darwinian World. Download in .pdf format

Three recent novels can help us to re-think our situation. The suggestions themselves are not new to theology, but they are presented in the context of the lived experience of people today. They include the way religious people picture themselves in relation to God and the world.

Denis Edwards

His home page at Flinders University

Denis Edwards has written a number of books and articles relevant to the theme of this conference, including The God of Evolution (Paulist 1999). He is a senior lecturer in systematic theology in the School of Theology of Flinders University, and is a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide. He has been involved with some of the international series of conferences on science and theology cosponsored by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (Berkeley) and the Vatican Observatory. In 1992 he was invited to become a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is a founding member of the Catholic Earthcare Australia Advisory Council.

In recent years he has been involved in setting up the Flinders University and Adelaide College of Divinity Centre for Theology, Science and Culture and serves on its board. Currently he is the chair of the ecumenical commission of the archdiocese of Adelaide. He is a member of the Australian Anglican Roman Catholic Commission and is co-chair of the national Lutheran Roman Catholic Dialogue.

Transformation of the Universe in the Theology of Karl Rahner

In one of his late articles Rahner outlines an agenda for a Christology. Among other things, he identifies a need to develop the thought of Teilhard de Chardin with more precision and clarity, showing the intelligible and orthodox connection between Jesus of Nazareth and Christ as the Omega point of world evolution. What Rahner seems to be calling for at the end of his life is a truly systematic theology of the risen Christ in relation to the evolving universe.

I will propose that Rahner had already long been involved in the work of constructing such a theology. As is often the case with Rahner, his own contributions on this theme are widely spread throughout his work, appearing in short articles on a variety of topics. I will attempt to gather his thought into a short synthesis, built up around
six interrelated systematic elements.

Denis has a number of books and articles which cover the material he presented in greater depth. He will send us a list of what is available online soon, though a search for "Denis Edwards" and evolution yields lots of hits. His powerpoint presentations form the conference are not in publishable form.

Cameron Freeman

Cameron Freeman is currently completing post-graduate studies at Flinders University in Theology and Philosophy. He was awarded a B.A with Honours in Philosophy in 1998 from Flinders University. His research interests include the paradoxical dimensions of Christianity, the Ken Wilber's integral philosophy, emergent evolution and the sciences of complexity, deconstructive post-modernism, Non-Dual mysticism and the integration of science and religion.

Heading towards Omega (Saturday talk) Download in .pdf format

This paper will put forward the idea that evolution is a process of self-realisation that is ultimately directed towards God. It is argued that the Darwinian theory of natural selection acting on random variations - while fine on its own terms - is not a completely adequate explanation for the large-scale transformations in the history of the universe. It is then argued that the overall evolutionary trajectory from matter to life to mind can be better understood by the "sciences of complexity" that provide evidence that evolution has a self-transcending drive tucked within its processes, thus providing solid scientific grounds for the idea that evolution is headed towards a rendezvous
with God, the Omega-point of the entire process.

Evolution and the Way of the Cross (Sunday talk) Download in .pdf format

Combining the theory of punctuated equilibrium (S.J. Gould) with the models of change put forth by the "sciences of complexity" it is argued that real evolutionary transformation involves a twin dynamic of crisis and renewal - it
is through relatively brief periods of crisis and instability that new forms and structures emerge in the cosmos, the biosphere as well as human history. This dynamic pattern is then correlated with the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ to ague that Life has an inherent propensity to go beyond itself and reach out into altogether new creative possibilities even in the face of chaos, contingency and crisis. It is then claimed that an evolutionary
Christology would affirm both "the cost" of evolution and the idea that in Jesus Christ we have the presence of God in the heart of wounded flesh, thereby reconciling the painful cost of our evolutionary emergence with the life of
God.

Cameron will attempt to make references available soon.

Lorna Hallahan

Lorna Hallahan, a social worker by trade, has contributed a number of articles on ecotheology in books and at conferences. She has been involved in disability advocacy for nearly twenty years, often contributing to discussions in the 'third space' border zones between bio-medical and cultural/theological/political understandings and responses to people living with disability. She is currently completely her doctoral thesis In My Flesh Shall I see God - Journeys around Theology and Disability. (When it is finished she intends to carry out a cherished goal of joining The Dixie Chicks)

She is the co-cordinator of the Disability and Spirituality project of the Centre for Theology, Sience and Culture at the ACD, and recently appeared on ABC radio national (link goes directly to her story in a new window)

Freaking out God

In Freaking Out God Lorna will open up a third space discussion about evolutionary and theological understandings of human mutation, especially when it is viewed as problematic and undesirable. This paper will not offer answers, rather it asks the questions from the worlds of disability, as a little heeded perspective in both scientific and theological deliberations about human change and development.

Lorna's hopes to have notes from her presentation available for the web site by the 21st of September.

Jason John

Jason (skinnypreacher@hotmail.com)is a deacon in the Uniting Church in Australia. Before becoming a Christian he did his honours in animal eco-physiology. He is currently undertaking a PhD in theology, constructing a framework for a biocentric theology in a Uniting Church context, one which takes adequate account (he hopes!) of the insights of evolutionary biology in particular. This is his chance to investigate the theoretical backing for his involvement in a number of environmental campaigns. He recently returned to Adelaide to finish the thesis with Toni, and young Finn. The chooks had to be fostered out.

He was until recently a member of UnitingJustice, and remains on the environment subgroup of that body. He has worked as a chaplain at the University of Queensland, an environment officer for the UQ Student Union, and a researcher for the Queensland Synod Bioethics Committee.

Biocentric theology and the image of God

Annotated powerpoint here (1.9mb)

Some reflections on a bit of a nearly completed thesis. As the place of humans in the life history of Earth continues to shrink, it becomes increasingly untenable to claim that humans alone bear the image of God, and completely incredible to claim that we were put on Earth from the beginning of creation to be its ruler or steward. So what is the image of God, and who or what is the steward of Earth?

Thanks to the miracles of technology those who attend this talk will see God. Or, at least, a sketch. By an amateur theologian who is an even more amateur artist. You will leave embracing, even celebrating the inevitability of our extinction.

A pretty poor quality conversion of the talk is online. You can watch the video (12mb), or just listen to the audio (6mb). There is also a low quality video of question time (2.8mb).

Evolution, Christianity, Sex and Marriage

Annotated powerpoint file is available here (0.3mb)

The Uniting Church's marriage service says that, "Marriage is a gift of God ... Jo and Jo are now to begin this way of life which God has created and Christ has blessed." Does this have any meaning for a post Darwinian Christian? What does evolutionary biology have to teach us about sex and marriage that we didn't know when we drafted such statements? What should the church now be affirming (and questioning) about marriage, sex, and having children? Is it time to affirm reproductive celibacy as the Christian moral calling?

Hope for a biocentric church.

A very short video made for the last Assembly. (0.3mb version) (0.6mb version)

Tony Kelly

Dr. Anthony Kelly lives in South Australia and holds a BA in Philosophy, Sociology and Theology from Flinders University, did Honours in Philosophy in 1988 and Postgraduate work in Philosophy 1989-95 and in Theology 1996-1998. He was admitted to Doctor of Philosophy in Theology in 1998. He has been a Board Member of the Inter-Church Trade and Industry Mission for years 1973-1977, and its Chairman in 1977-78. Between 1970 and 1982 Dr Kelly was Secretary, then Vice President, and finally President of the SA Industrial Relations Society,
and was a member of the Flinders University Council 1981-84. You may contact Dr Anthony Kelly at anthonykelly@dodo.com.au or visit his web page at www.philosophy.27south.com

An Emergent Christology (opens in a new window)

I argue that Creation is a process involving a series of Emergent stages. Each new Emergent stage sublates the previous stage in that it incorporates the previous stage but transcends it. The present Human Moral-cultural stage provides a platform for the final Emergent stage. Previous Emergent stages have developed by self-organisation. The final Emergent stage can only develop by human self-creation. Jesus is a proleptic exemplar of the final Emergent stage.
Tony's thesis, and several articles from it, can be read at www.philosophy.27south.com

L Lee Levett-Olson

A B.A. in both literature and history began L Lee Levett-Olson’s academic career, which continued with the M.Div from Princeton in History of (World) Religions. Having trained for the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Lee began ordained ministry with the Uniting Church in Whyalla SA. After many years as a congregational minister, Lee returned to full-time study, receiving his PhD in philosophical theology from Flinders University in 2003. From July 2003, Lee has been Principal of Coolamon College, the UC National Network for Distance Theological Education, now part of the Adelaide College of Divinity; he is also on the board of the Centre for Theology, Science, and Culture.

Committed to social justice and communal compassion, Lee shares a vegetarian organic household with his wife, daughter, and two incorrigible dogs. His deepening interest in ecotheology is tied to a passion for empathy across all borders – including those between species.

A God of All Species? Theodicy, Transcendence, Incarnation. Download in .pdf format

One area of anthropocentrism that has attracted little attention is in theodicy: God’s role in the emergence and persistence of evil. Sin and suffering is almost always examined as a primarily human issue; but the mass extinction of species before humans existed calls into question our understanding of who God is and how God works in creation. Are humans causing a new wave of extinctions in part because of a twisted view of the image of God?
The presentation will explore these ideas and consider an incarnational alternative: a creative partnership between divine compassion and human consciousness that might yet generate a truly ‘bio-ethical’ future.

The video or audio of Lee's presentation will appear here as soon as we can process it.