Human Distinctiveness: A Program to Engage Theologians with the Dynamism of Anthropological and Evolutionary Approaches to the Human

This project has two central aims. The first is to provide a pool of theologians who will not only be literate in evolutionary anthropology but will also have the confidence to venture into new and currently unexplored areas of innovative research at the interface of these two disciplines. This will be accomplished through the following: a) a summer seminar which will provide a total of twelve theologians with an in-depth introduction to anthropology and three anthropologists a similar introduction to theology and the perspectives of theologians; b) a competition-based full semester leave for up to five of the seminar participants to continue the research begun during the summer program; c) one follow-up seminars for networking and reviewing each others’ work; and d) a series of graduate fellowships to allow six Notre Dame students to participate in the program and undertake research on relevant themes. The second aim is to engage in research at the interface of anthropology and theology on the evolution of wisdom. This will be led by the PLs and will engage the graduate students and seminar participants. Although the activities of this proposed project stand on their own in terms of providing a pool of forty scholars and six soon-to-be scholars who can engage both theology and anthropology in depth, these programs also constitute a major step toward a planned joint graduate program in theology and anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. This will be a central part of the University’s growing suite of activities in science and religion.