Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
While Christian theologians and philosophers of religion defend various views concerning human nature and the Imago Dei, most hold that human beings have characteristics that equip them to (a) exercise stewardship over creation and (b) engage in relationships of love and friendship. Recent work in human evolution has provided evidence that human beings are distinctive in ways that make them uniquely suited to fill these roles. In addition, the ancestral conditions within which these capacities emerged seem to be configured in highly specific ways—ways that make the emergence of these capacities not only possible but likely. As a result, the conditions within which human evolution takes place are structured in surprisingly specific ways that allow beings made in the divine image to emerge.
Michael Murray is Senior Vice President at the John Templeton Foundation where he oversees Foundations grant making in the natural sciences, philosophy, theology, and public engagement. Before joining the Foundation he was the Arthur and Katherine Shadek chair in philosophy and the humanities at Franklin and Marshall College, where is is currently Senior Visiting Scholar. Michael has also held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of Notre Dame, and Oxford University. His published research concerns topics at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology, as well as seventeenth century Continental thought. In addition to a numerous peer reviewed articles, he has recently authored or edited Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge, with Michael Rea) and Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering (Oxford), The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion (Oxford, with Jeffrey Schloss), On Predestination and Election (Yale) and Divine Evil? (Oxford, with Michael Rea and Michael Bergmann).
*************
VISIT US: wycliffecollege.ca
STUDY AT WYCLIFFE:
wycliffecollege.ca/programs-courses/academic-programs
E-NEWSLETTER:
wycliffecollege.ca/newsletter/signup2
FOLLOW US:
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/wycliffetoronto
TWITTER: twitter.com/Wycliffe_UofT
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/wycliffecollegetoronto
YOUTUBE: youtube.com/user/wycliffeUofT
SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/wycliffe-college
Podcast: wycliffecollege.ca/podcast
CONTACT US:
wycliffecollege.ca/contact
******************
While Christian theologians and philosophers of religion defend various views concerning human nature and the Imago Dei, most hold that human beings have characteristics that equip them to (a) exercise stewardship over creation and (b) engage in relationships of love and friendship. Recent work in human evolution has provided evidence that human beings are distinctive in ways that make them uniquely suited to fill these roles. In addition, the ancestral conditions within which these capacities emerged seem to be configured in highly specific ways—ways that make the emergence of these capacities not only possible but likely. As a result, the conditions within which human evolution takes place are structured in surprisingly specific ways that allow beings made in the divine image to emerge.
Michael Murray is Senior Vice President at the John Templeton Foundation where he oversees Foundations grant making in the natural sciences, philosophy, theology, and public engagement. Before joining the Foundation he was the Arthur and Katherine Shadek chair in philosophy and the humanities at Franklin and Marshall College, where is is currently Senior Visiting Scholar. Michael has also held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of Notre Dame, and Oxford University. His published research concerns topics at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology, as well as seventeenth century Continental thought. In addition to a numerous peer reviewed articles, he has recently authored or edited Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge, with Michael Rea) and Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering (Oxford), The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion (Oxford, with Jeffrey Schloss), On Predestination and Election (Yale) and Divine Evil? (Oxford, with Michael Rea and Michael Bergmann).
*************
VISIT US: wycliffecollege.ca
STUDY AT WYCLIFFE:
wycliffecollege.ca/programs-courses/academic-programs
E-NEWSLETTER:
wycliffecollege.ca/newsletter/signup2
FOLLOW US:
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/wycliffetoronto
TWITTER: twitter.com/Wycliffe_UofT
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/wycliffecollegetoronto
YOUTUBE: youtube.com/user/wycliffeUofT
SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/wycliffe-college
Podcast: wycliffecollege.ca/podcast
CONTACT US:
wycliffecollege.ca/contact
******************
