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Rick Bonetti

Church of the Planet and a Theology of Evolution

Updated: Jul 20


In her 2020 book Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion, Ilia Delio says: "The shift from the individual to the posthuman in the second axial period calls for a new religious expression." She quotes Frank Newport who says, "Institutional religion is coming to an end." Referencing James Emery White, she notes: "The rise of the Nones - spiritual, but not religious - signals the rise of a new religious consciousness, without the trapping of institutional life."


A theology of evolution understands 'God' as "neither fixed nor otherworldly, but the inner creative power of wholeness and unity, impelling cosmic evolution toward the personalization of being in love." This scientific/pantheistic worldview sees "matter as porous and permeable, while divinity is chaotic, unstable, and overflowing. God enters into materiality and rises up and through evolution."


Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a scientist (paleontologist) and Franciscan priest "developed a highly progressive, cosmic theology which took into account his evolutionary studies." Teilhard thought that a "religion of the earth" must replace a "religion of heaven" and that science and religion are not incompatible, but two aspects of one reality.


Ilia Delio has updated and extended Teilhard's thoughts in line with new scientific understandings calling for a Church of the Planet. In The Not-Yet God (2023) she offers a new myth of "relational holism," in the search for a new connection to divinity in an age of quantum physics, evolution, and cultural pluralism.


David Felton, in his February 1, 2024 column on Progressing Spirit, interviews Michael Zimmerman of the Clergy Letter Project, "a grassroots organization consisting of clergy from around the world who’ve come together to not only promote the belief that science and religion can and should be considered compatible, but to show that there are advantages to both science and religion if the two are seen working hand in hand instead of being at war with one another."


The Clergy Letter Project members come together at least once a year for Religion and Science Weekend "to move the dialogue between religion and science a little deeper." Religion and Science Weekend was held this year from February 9-11, 2024 with the theme: Religion, Science and the Common Good., 151 Congregations representing 35 States and the District of Columbia, and 6 countries participated in the Religion and Science Weekend. As of 7/17/24, a total of 17,357 signatures appeared on The Clergy Letters.


NPR reported earlier in 2024 that Pew Research finds that "nones" (people affiliated with no religion) now outnumber Catholics and Evangelical Protestants. He notes that "many of these unaffiliated Americans point to the church’s anti-science stance as one of the main reasons for their disaffection."


However, Gallup 2019 research finds that despite the advances of science still "forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created them in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years."


A new theology of evolution will help humans appreciate our inter-connectness with all that is and inspire an attitude of sustainability. This may take some time because of institutional inertia and nationalism, but the need for this transition is urgent because of disruptions due to global warming, species extinction, the threat of potentially escalating wars, and other factors.




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