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Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing
What does God's creation of humanity through the process of evolution mean for human flourishing? The emerging field of evolutionary psychology remains controversial, perhaps especially among Christians. Yet according to Justin Barrett and Pamela Ebstyne King it can be a powerful tool for understanding human nature and our distinctively human purpose. Thriving with Stone Age Minds provides an introduction to evolutionary psychology, explaining key concepts like hyper-sociality, information gathering, and self-control. Combining insights from evolutionary psychology with resources from the Bible and Christian theology, Barrett and King focus fresh attention on the question, What is human flourishing? When we understand how humans still bear the marks of our evolutionary past, new light shines on some of the most puzzling features of our minds, relationships, and behaviors. One key insight of evolutionary psychology is how humans both adapt to and then alter our environments, or niches. In fact, we change our world faster than our minds can adapt--and then gaps in our fitness emerge. In effect, humans are now attempting to thrive in modern contexts with Stone Age minds. By integrating scientific evidence with wisdom from theological anthropology, we can learn to close up nature-niche gaps and thrive, becoming more what God has created us to be.
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Published July 13, 2021
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December 14, 2021
Summary: An examination of the ways evolutionary psychology and Christian faith intersect in understanding what sets us apart as human beings and how human beings may thrive.
Many of us from strong Christian backgrounds grew up with suspicions about anything with the word “evolution” in it. Likewise, those from scientific backgrounds often dismissed Christian faith’s ability to add to our understanding of what it means to be human. The authors of this work contend that the insights of each may enrich and enlarge the other and, together may contribute to the thriving of human beings.
Evolutionary psychology reveals that in addition to our physical distinctives, we are distinguished by exceptional sociality, expertise acquisition, and self-control. Interesting enough, these qualities map onto many theological understandings of what it means to be in the image of God. We are made for relationship with God and others, we have a capacity to acquire knowledge of and modify our world, and we are volitional, acting or refraining from acting toward some end.
Yet we often fail to thrive. Evolutionary psychology distinguishes between nature and niche. What is remarkable about us is how we may modify our niches with our capacities to relate, know, and self-control. Yet we often do so in ways that outstrip the capacities of our “stone age” minds to adapt. It is particularly striking around the question of purpose. At one time, the answer to the question of what do you want to be when you grow up was simple: alive. Now, it is far more complex, and yet answering this question is key to thriving.
The authors go into more depth on each of the three distinguishing makes of human evolutionary psychology. We learn how all of us “mindread” in social relationships, the various biases that shape learning, and how we learn to emotionally regulate. This latter chapter notes the role religion has played in emotional regulation and self control and wonders about the implication of the decline of religion in a society.
The authors draw evolutionary psychology together in a final chapter on telos. They explore what it means to love on a species level–beyond our own tribe, what it means to love God and care for creation, the purposes of family, community, and church, and our own purpose–all part of thriving. Awareness of nature and niche also shapes our thriving toward our telos. We recognize our nature’s strengths and weaknesses without viewing them rigidly. We recognize that our nature can widen the gap between us and our niche, or close it. We neither widen the gaps for those who follow nor close them such that those who follow have no occasion to stretch or grow.
The authors, I felt, made a strong case for why evolutionary psychology and Christian faith need not be in conflict. Each may enrich the other in understanding what it means to be fully human, fully alive–thriving in our world and with each other. They actually explore and flesh out what is often assumed, what it means to be creatures in the image of God, how we are creaturely and yet distinct from all other creatures. In recent years, the “warfare” between science and faith often has seemed its fiercest in the social sciences. A work like this suggests that neither the science nor the faith offer occasion for war but rather enriching commerce with each other. There may be other reasons for warring, but the substance of both science and Christian faith offer grounds for peaceful exchange. Could it be that our fights are unneeded?
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Many of us from strong Christian backgrounds grew up with suspicions about anything with the word “evolution” in it. Likewise, those from scientific backgrounds often dismissed Christian faith’s ability to add to our understanding of what it means to be human. The authors of this work contend that the insights of each may enrich and enlarge the other and, together may contribute to the thriving of human beings.
Evolutionary psychology reveals that in addition to our physical distinctives, we are distinguished by exceptional sociality, expertise acquisition, and self-control. Interesting enough, these qualities map onto many theological understandings of what it means to be in the image of God. We are made for relationship with God and others, we have a capacity to acquire knowledge of and modify our world, and we are volitional, acting or refraining from acting toward some end.
Yet we often fail to thrive. Evolutionary psychology distinguishes between nature and niche. What is remarkable about us is how we may modify our niches with our capacities to relate, know, and self-control. Yet we often do so in ways that outstrip the capacities of our “stone age” minds to adapt. It is particularly striking around the question of purpose. At one time, the answer to the question of what do you want to be when you grow up was simple: alive. Now, it is far more complex, and yet answering this question is key to thriving.
The authors go into more depth on each of the three distinguishing makes of human evolutionary psychology. We learn how all of us “mindread” in social relationships, the various biases that shape learning, and how we learn to emotionally regulate. This latter chapter notes the role religion has played in emotional regulation and self control and wonders about the implication of the decline of religion in a society.
The authors draw evolutionary psychology together in a final chapter on telos. They explore what it means to love on a species level–beyond our own tribe, what it means to love God and care for creation, the purposes of family, community, and church, and our own purpose–all part of thriving. Awareness of nature and niche also shapes our thriving toward our telos. We recognize our nature’s strengths and weaknesses without viewing them rigidly. We recognize that our nature can widen the gap between us and our niche, or close it. We neither widen the gaps for those who follow nor close them such that those who follow have no occasion to stretch or grow.
The authors, I felt, made a strong case for why evolutionary psychology and Christian faith need not be in conflict. Each may enrich the other in understanding what it means to be fully human, fully alive–thriving in our world and with each other. They actually explore and flesh out what is often assumed, what it means to be creatures in the image of God, how we are creaturely and yet distinct from all other creatures. In recent years, the “warfare” between science and faith often has seemed its fiercest in the social sciences. A work like this suggests that neither the science nor the faith offer occasion for war but rather enriching commerce with each other. There may be other reasons for warring, but the substance of both science and Christian faith offer grounds for peaceful exchange. Could it be that our fights are unneeded?
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
September 11, 2023
This book was my first foray into the world of the evolutionary psychology. The book explores the intersection of evolutionary psychology, with a number of theological understandings, such as the imago dei. It is a fascinating treatment, and well worth the read it.
May 21, 2022
If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. The balance between evolutionary psych and theology is a difficult, and often divisive, balance - but Barrett and King manages to address it both delicately and scholarly. Amazing book, can’t recommend highly enough
August 18, 2022
This is a welcome book, taking evolutionary psychology out of the hands of the reductionists and placing it in the service of a more comprehensive analysis of reality. The author juxtaposes 'fitness' with human flourishing in a manner that provides a much more insightful and layered picture of history and our place in the cosmos.
In Charles Taylor's Secular Age, he warns against collapsing transcendence, ultimate values, and virtues into the limited category of human flourishing. Which can indeed be understood in a way that is too small and ignores the true and living God or the rest of creation. Even well-intentioned Christians regularly fall into this trap and describe the world in terms of the 'immanent frame', which in turn leads to a malaise in human societies. As Taylor's body of work, many comprehensive studies, anecdotes, and cross-cultural metrics such as suicide rates, depression, etc demonstrate.
Justin avoids the pitfall in the book by giving Christian theology and philosophy their due place, reminding us of the central Christian dogma of 'Imago Dei'. We are created in God's image and likeness.
Making use of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and so forth to communicate this can be fruitful for Christians. This is the case more pragmatically, but if God has indeed used evolution of whatever kind, and it need not be blind, then it is right and good.
Furthermore, whatever blindness there is, as Simone Weil has written, is balanced out against contrary forces in a higher non-random order that we recognise as beautiful. This can be seen if we take a multi-disciplinary and multi-model approach. Reality presents itself to us at the Quantum and Newtonian levels at the same time. (Amongst others). The 'science' of course pointing beyond itself. Think here of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. With our scientific understanding itself being nestled within philosophical, hermeneutic, historical and theological modes. (See Dr Jens Zimmerman, James Hannam, etc)
Other Christian authors such as Dr Stephen C. Meyer, Dr Hugh Ross, Professor Nancy Pearcey, Dr Alvin Plantinga, Perry Marshall and so on have written about these intersections with great clarity.
However, a most intriguing development is the more popular success of Dr Jordan B. Peterson's YouTube series on the Bible. The psychologist professor uses many of the terms from evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and so on to show how the Christian story makes sense at various levels of being and is pragmatically on point. This book, like some of those others mentioned, builds upon that and is starting to address an academic and cultural lacunae which frees us from the small-minded dogmatism of 'religious' fundamentalists- of the Christian or secularist kinds alike.
The author shines a light on areas like education, and what is more natural and beneficial to young people than the factory model many of us have had to endure. He calls for greater involvement in teaching from older children around the same age as their peers and young teachers who can exert a greater influence on young learners, schools to incorporate insights drawn from developmental psychology, a structure that is not so often formal and rigorous.
This affects us adults a well, with so many arbitrary and unnecessary rules herding us through our day in a barely conscious stupor. We are malformed from a young age in these 'niches' which do not lend themselves to human thriving. Here, Barrett's suggestions dovetail with much Classical Education, leisure and the liberal arts. (Susan Wise Bauer, Robert M. Woods, Josef Pieper, John Taylor Gatto, Mortimer Adler, and co.)
There is a lot more work to be done, with greater critique of the dark sides of evolutionary sciences, and how what is good in them may be more fully integrated into Christian theology, plus how this can inform our practices. But this is an excellent primer.
If you like this book, then I would recommend the marvellous The Great Partnership by the late, also great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
In Charles Taylor's Secular Age, he warns against collapsing transcendence, ultimate values, and virtues into the limited category of human flourishing. Which can indeed be understood in a way that is too small and ignores the true and living God or the rest of creation. Even well-intentioned Christians regularly fall into this trap and describe the world in terms of the 'immanent frame', which in turn leads to a malaise in human societies. As Taylor's body of work, many comprehensive studies, anecdotes, and cross-cultural metrics such as suicide rates, depression, etc demonstrate.
Justin avoids the pitfall in the book by giving Christian theology and philosophy their due place, reminding us of the central Christian dogma of 'Imago Dei'. We are created in God's image and likeness.
Making use of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and so forth to communicate this can be fruitful for Christians. This is the case more pragmatically, but if God has indeed used evolution of whatever kind, and it need not be blind, then it is right and good.
Furthermore, whatever blindness there is, as Simone Weil has written, is balanced out against contrary forces in a higher non-random order that we recognise as beautiful. This can be seen if we take a multi-disciplinary and multi-model approach. Reality presents itself to us at the Quantum and Newtonian levels at the same time. (Amongst others). The 'science' of course pointing beyond itself. Think here of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. With our scientific understanding itself being nestled within philosophical, hermeneutic, historical and theological modes. (See Dr Jens Zimmerman, James Hannam, etc)
Other Christian authors such as Dr Stephen C. Meyer, Dr Hugh Ross, Professor Nancy Pearcey, Dr Alvin Plantinga, Perry Marshall and so on have written about these intersections with great clarity.
However, a most intriguing development is the more popular success of Dr Jordan B. Peterson's YouTube series on the Bible. The psychologist professor uses many of the terms from evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and so on to show how the Christian story makes sense at various levels of being and is pragmatically on point. This book, like some of those others mentioned, builds upon that and is starting to address an academic and cultural lacunae which frees us from the small-minded dogmatism of 'religious' fundamentalists- of the Christian or secularist kinds alike.
The author shines a light on areas like education, and what is more natural and beneficial to young people than the factory model many of us have had to endure. He calls for greater involvement in teaching from older children around the same age as their peers and young teachers who can exert a greater influence on young learners, schools to incorporate insights drawn from developmental psychology, a structure that is not so often formal and rigorous.
This affects us adults a well, with so many arbitrary and unnecessary rules herding us through our day in a barely conscious stupor. We are malformed from a young age in these 'niches' which do not lend themselves to human thriving. Here, Barrett's suggestions dovetail with much Classical Education, leisure and the liberal arts. (Susan Wise Bauer, Robert M. Woods, Josef Pieper, John Taylor Gatto, Mortimer Adler, and co.)
There is a lot more work to be done, with greater critique of the dark sides of evolutionary sciences, and how what is good in them may be more fully integrated into Christian theology, plus how this can inform our practices. But this is an excellent primer.
If you like this book, then I would recommend the marvellous The Great Partnership by the late, also great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
September 11, 2021
I was really excited when I first learned about this book before it was even published. Justin Barrett's focus is on cognitive and evolutionary psychologist and Pam King's is on developmental and positive psychology. I have relied heavily on their work for my own education in psychology and ministry work so I was excited to see how they integrated psychology and theology at a popular level.
Overall, the book was great. I think it will be an excellent introduction to evolutionary psychology for Christians who might be skeptical of the field. While the authors do hold the view that humans and other animals are the product of evolution, that is not a necessary belief for accepting the conclusions of this book or evolutionary psychology. All the conclusions are the same if it's assumed that God specially created humans the way we are now.
In the book, the authors argue that what makes humans different from other animals is our social ability, ability to attain and use information, and our ability to exhibit self-control. Based on these traits (evolved or designed), we can make scientific predictions about what leads to human flourishing and these predictions align with what the Bible teaches about flourishing. The alignment of science and Christianity theology on this topic is a useful apologetic tool that isn't often discussed in other apologetics sources.
I went back and forth on whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars (fractions aren't possible on this platform) because I couldn't decide if my criticisms were fair based on my familiarity with the subject. The main problem I had with this book is that it is written for a broad audience. For most people, this is probably a positive thing, but I have a bit more experience in the field of psychology so I didn't learn a lot from this book.
The only other critique I have of this book is that it is too short. This relates to the depth I already talked about, but in addition to that, I think they could have explained some interesting research studies or used more stories to give practical examples of the points they were making. To be fair, they did do these things, and did them pretty well, but I think it would have made the book even more engaging if they did it more like other psychology books do (Gladwell, Cialdini, Pinker, and other psychologists).
Ultimately, the book was enjoyable to listen to, accessible, and will be informative for most people. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in theology, psychology, or human flourishing, even most psychologists because the way the authors integrate faith with science might be useful Christian psychologists who haven't thought about this integration much.
Overall, the book was great. I think it will be an excellent introduction to evolutionary psychology for Christians who might be skeptical of the field. While the authors do hold the view that humans and other animals are the product of evolution, that is not a necessary belief for accepting the conclusions of this book or evolutionary psychology. All the conclusions are the same if it's assumed that God specially created humans the way we are now.
In the book, the authors argue that what makes humans different from other animals is our social ability, ability to attain and use information, and our ability to exhibit self-control. Based on these traits (evolved or designed), we can make scientific predictions about what leads to human flourishing and these predictions align with what the Bible teaches about flourishing. The alignment of science and Christianity theology on this topic is a useful apologetic tool that isn't often discussed in other apologetics sources.
I went back and forth on whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars (fractions aren't possible on this platform) because I couldn't decide if my criticisms were fair based on my familiarity with the subject. The main problem I had with this book is that it is written for a broad audience. For most people, this is probably a positive thing, but I have a bit more experience in the field of psychology so I didn't learn a lot from this book.
The only other critique I have of this book is that it is too short. This relates to the depth I already talked about, but in addition to that, I think they could have explained some interesting research studies or used more stories to give practical examples of the points they were making. To be fair, they did do these things, and did them pretty well, but I think it would have made the book even more engaging if they did it more like other psychology books do (Gladwell, Cialdini, Pinker, and other psychologists).
Ultimately, the book was enjoyable to listen to, accessible, and will be informative for most people. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in theology, psychology, or human flourishing, even most psychologists because the way the authors integrate faith with science might be useful Christian psychologists who haven't thought about this integration much.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews