Macroevolution, Contingency, and Divine Activity
Divine Involvement through Uncontrolling, Amorepotent Love in an Evolutionary World
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What are the things that God values in the creative process? How does one define God's activity in such a world? How is God's involvement different from a contingent--what this author labels contingentist--instance? Why do we need a God-idea at all? Herein, Bradford McCall addresses how divine, amorepotent love works with and within a contingentist (i.e., radically contingent) evolutionary theory and worldview. Within the course of this project, he reaches a via media between the (somewhat) radical formalist position of Simon Conway Morris and the veritably radical contingent position of Stephen Jay Gould. But . . . how is the contingentist amorepotent and uncontrolling love of God understood as purposeful? McCall argues in detail that there in fact is some sort of purposiveness that is nevertheless working in a chastened Gouldian position, and he distinguishes between contingency and veritable divine involvement. He contends that God does not insist upon a particular outcome but merely allows propensities to work themselves out. God amorepotently loves the population of the natural world into greater forms of complexity, relationality, and beauty in varied and multifarious forms, along with the extension of diversity.
Bradford McCall
Dr. Bradford L. McCall holds a B.S. in Biology (2000), four Master’s in Religion or Philosophy (2005)–M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary; 2011–MA in Church History and Doctrine from Regent University [Thesis: Charles Sanders Peirce, Theology, & Teleology: A (Late-)Modern Synthesis]; 2017–MA in Systematic Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and Seminary [Thesis: A Modern Relation of Science & Theology Assisted by the Evolutionary Developmental Philosophy of Peirce]; 2020–MA in Religious Studies from Claremont School of Theology [awarded on the successful passage of the Comprehensive Exams Areas delineated below]), and a PhD in Comparative Theology from Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, CA, wherein his interdisciplinary dissertation was entitled Contingency and Divine Activity: Toward A Contemporary Conception of Divine Involvement in an Evolutionary World, which was successfully defended 22 September, 2021. His Doktor vater & dissertation chair was the distinguished Dr. Philip Clayton (Claremont School of Theology). The other members of his committee were similarly distinguished in their areas of expertise: Dr. Ingolf U. Dalferth (Claremont Graduate University) and Dr. Roland Faber (Claremont School of Theology). McCall has written nearly 40 peer-reviewed Journal Articles and has written or is in the process of writing nearly a dozen books, including: A Modern Relation of Theology and Science Assisted by Emergence and Kenosis (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2018); as ed. God and Gravity: A Philip Clayton Reader on Science and Theology with an Autobiographical Chapter by Philip Clayton (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2018); Evolution: Secular or Sacred? (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020); The God of Chance & Purpose: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022); Macroevolution, Contingency and Divine Activity: Divine Involvement Through Uncontrolling, Amorepotent Love in an Evolutionary World (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2023); as ed., Reading Ruse: Michael Ruse on Darwinism, Science, & Faith, with an Autobiographical Chapter by Michael Ruse (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 10/2024); Theological Briefs: Triangulating Religion, Belief, & Faith in the 21st Century (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024); Theological Briefs: The Advent of Grace (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2025); and as ed., Ruminating on Ruse: Key Themes in the Evolutionary Naturalism of Michael Ruse (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2025); Theological Briefs: A Christian Natural Theology of Chance & Contingency—Towards An Evolutionary Telos for Late-Modern Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2025): Under Review; as ed., The Peacocke’s Tale: An Arthur R. Peacocke Reader on Science & Faith, with a Foreword by Philip Clayton (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2026): Under Review.
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