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7Respecting living kidney donor autonomy: an argument for liberalising living kidney donor acceptance criteriaMonash Bioethics Review 41 (2): 156-173. 2022.Doctors routinely refuse donation offers from prospective living kidney donors with certain comorbidities such as diabetes or obesity out of concern for donor wellbeing. This refusal occurs despite the ongoing shortage of kidney transplants and the superior performance of living donor kidney transplants compared to those from deceased donors. In this paper, we argue that this paternalistic refusal by doctors is unjustified and that, within limits, there should be greater acceptance of such donat…Read more
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10What's with free will?: ethics and religion after neuroscience (edited book)Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2020.Are humans free, or are we determined by our genes and the world around us? The question of freedom is not only one of philosophy’s greatest conundrums, but also one of the most fundamental questions of human existence. It’s particularly pressing in societies like ours, where our core institutions of law, ethics, and religion are built around the belief in individual freedom. Can one still affirm human freedom in an age of science? And if free will doesn’t exist, does it make sense to act as tho…Read more
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Das Gottesproblem. Band 1: Gott und Unendlichkeit in der neuzeitlichen PhilosophieFerdinand Schöningh Verlag. 1996.
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255On emergence, agency, and organizationBiology and Philosophy 21 (4): 501-521. 2006.Ultimately we will only understand biological agency when we have developed a theory of the organization of biological processes, and science is still a long way from attaining that goal. It may be possible nonetheless to develop a list of necessary conditions for the emergence of minimal biological agency. The authors offer a model of molecular autonomous agents which meets the five minimal physical conditions that are necessary (and, we believe, conjointly sufficient) for applying agential lan…Read more
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618Prospects for Panentheism as Research ProgramEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 11 (1): 1-18. 2019.Panentheism is best understood as a philosophical research program. Identifying the core of the research program offers a strong response to the demarcation objection. It also helps focus both objections to and defenses of panentheism — and to show why common objections are not actually criticisms of the position we are defending. The paper also addresses two common criticisms: the alleged inadequacy of panentheism’s double “in” specification of the relationship between God and world, and the “d…Read more
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11God Beyond Orthodoxy: Process Theology for the 21stcentury'Tattva - Journal of Philosophy 1 (1): 27-28. 2009.God Beyond Orthodoxy: Process Theology for the 21stcentury
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2Religious Voices Count: The New Openness to Spiritual Questions in the SciencesBulletin of Science, Technology and Society 19 (5): 416-423. 1999.For most of this century, those in the sciences have been accustomed to view religion as an opponent. Recent years, however, have seen a cultural change of great significance. Not only have many scientists dropped their former hostility to questions of spirituality, but increasing numbers of religious persons are following scientific developments, speaking on ethical and social issues raised by technology, and modifying beliefs that conflict with empirical evidence. This article shows why and ho…Read more
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Conclusion: Reflections on the discussionIn Philip Clayton, James W. Walters & John Martin Fischer (eds.), What's with free will?: ethics and religion after neuroscience, Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2020.
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Science, ethics, and free will: why neuroscience doesn't ground freedom, and what we might resolve to do about itIn Philip Clayton, James W. Walters & John Martin Fischer (eds.), What's with free will?: ethics and religion after neuroscience, Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2020.
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3The Infinite Found in Human Form: Intertwinings of Cosmology and IncarnationIn Chris Boesel (ed.), Apophatic Bodies: Negative Theology, Incarnation, and Relationality, Fordham University Press. pp. 286-304. 2022.
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40Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective (edited book)Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. 2004.Christians frequently resist evolutionary theory, believing it to be incompatible with the core values of their tradition. But what exactly are the tensions between evolution and religious faith in the area of human morality? Evolution and Ethics examines the burning questions of human morality from the standpoint of Christian thought and contemporary biology, asking where the two perspectives diverge and where they may complement one another. Representing a significant dialogue between world-cl…Read more
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Conceptual Foundations of Emergence TheoryIn Philip Clayton & Paul Davies (eds.), The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis From Science to Religion, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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26Book Reviews : Kai Nielsen, God, Scepticism and Modernity. Philosophica, vol. 40. Ottawa and London: University of Ottawa Press, 1989. Pp. 252, $40.00 (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 22 (4): 519-525. 1992.
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2491Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to ConsciousnessOxford University Press UK. 2004.Strong claims have been made for emergence as a new paradigm for understanding science, consciousness, and religion. Tracing the past history and current definitions of the concept, Clayton assesses the case for emergent phenomena in the natural world and their significance for philosophy and theology. Complex emergent phenomena require irreducible levels of explanation in physics, chemistry and biology. This pattern of emergence suggests a new approach to the problem of consciousness, which is …Read more
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33Evolution, contingency, and christologyZygon 53 (3): 766-781. 2018.Christopher Southgate has made important contributions to theodicy and the theory of divine action in light of the contingency in evolution and the suffering of creation. What happens then when one thinks through the implications of contingency for Christology? One can admit that aesthetic and moral judgments are products of a contingent history and yet affirm that they really are valid. Similarly, we argue, one can acknowledge the contingency of Jesus’ existence, actions, and subsequent impact …Read more
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59How radically can God be reconceived before ceasing to be God? The four faces of panentheismZygon 52 (4): 1044-1059. 2017.Panentheism has often been put forward as a means for bringing theology and science into dialogue, perhaps even resolving some of the major tensions between them. A variety of “faces” of panentheism are distinguished, including conservative, metaphysical, apophatic, and naturalist panentheisms. This series of increasingly radical panentheisms is explored, each one bringing its own core commitments, and each describing very different relationships between religion and science. We consider, for ex…Read more
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158The Religion‐Science Discussion at Forty Years: “Reports of Mydeath Are Premature”Zygon 40 (1): 23-32. 2005.The startling success of the religion‐science discussion in recent years calls for reflection. Have old walls been broken down, old antagonisms overcome? Have science and religion finally been reconciled? Or is all the activity just so much sound and fury signifying nothing? Postmodern equations of scientific and religious beliefs disregard a number of enduring differences that help make sense of the continuing tensions. Yet the skepticism of authors such as John Caiazza is also ungrounded. I de…Read more
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25The Recent ex Nihilo Debate and the Radical Contingency of GodPhilosophy, Theology and the Sciences 2 (2): 178. 2015.
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Explanation From Physics to the Philosophy of Religion: Continuities and DiscontinuitiesDissertation, Yale University. 1986.This thesis looks at explanation in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and in religious reflection. Although these fields differ radically in the objects studied and the methods employed, they do evidence certain formal commonalities when one inquires into the nature of the explanatory endeavor as it is manifested in each. By exploring the links between explanations and the various contexts or disciplines in which they occur, I attempt to provide a general framework for speaking of ratio…Read more
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20On Agency, Emergence and OrganizationBiology and Philosophy 21 (4): 501-521. 2006.Ultimately we will only understand biological agency when we have developed a theory of the organization of biological processes, and science is still a long way from attaining that goal. It may be possible nonetheless to develop a list of necessary conditions for the emergence of minimal biological agency. The authors offer a model of molecular autonomous agents which meets the five minimal physical conditions that are necessary (and, we believe, conjointly sufficient) for applying agential lan…Read more
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28Carol Christ.“Feminist re-imaginings of the divine and harts-horne's God: One and the same?” Feminist theology (2002): 95-115 (review)Philosophy 32 47-57. 2005.
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4Subjektivität ohne DualismusIn Tobias Müller & Thomas M. Schmidt (eds.), Ich denke, also bin ich Ich?: das Selbst zwischen Neurobiologie, Philosophie und Religion, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 14--93. 2011.
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Toward a Constructive Christian Theology of Emergence1In Nancey C. Murphy & William R. Stoeger (eds.), Evolution and emergence: systems, organisms, persons, Oxford University Press. pp. 60--315. 2007.
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Unsolved dilemmas : the concept of matter in the history of philosophy and in contemporary physicsIn Paul Davies & Niels Henrik Gregersen (eds.), Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press. 2010.
Claremont, California, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
General Philosophy of Science |