Neurotheology and Evolutionary Theology: Reflections on the Mystical Mind
Zygon® September 1, 2001 K. Peters 8 citations
The author questions whether neurotheology, as proposed by d'Aquili and Newberg, is comprehensive enough to address the moral and social dimensions of religion. An alternative is offered: evolutionary theology, grounded in biocultural evolution, which views ultimate reality as immanent in natural and human history. While evolutionary theology accounts for both neurology and culturally evolved religious ideas, it cannot explain the mystic experience of absolute unitary being. Neurotheology better accounts for this transcendent experience. Neither theology, however, explains how transcendent ultimate reality gives rise to the changing world of baseline reality.