Working group on evolution, future of humanity and questions of meaning

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The working group Evolution, Human Future and Questions of Meaning ( AGEMUS ) (also Latin: “Let's act!”) Is a working group that deals with interdisciplinary issues between modern natural sciences and theology. The name is a word created by the Freiburg geneticist Carsten Bresch from the early 1980s, who initiated this working group together with the theologian Helmut Riedlinger from an interdisciplinary theological-biological seminar group at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau . In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a considerable number of AGEMUS working groups were formed, especially in the university environment. The Freiburg AGEMUS circular initially formed the common communication platform for all of these working groups.

Beginning in Freiburg im Breisgau

In this working group, students and teachers from different faculties of the University of Freiburg im Breisgau met from the beginning of the 1980s , who were convinced of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's comprehensive, integrative evolutionary approach as a viable basis for interdisciplinary discussions between natural sciences and theology. From September 1981 the Freiburg working group published the quarterly magazine “Agemus Rundbrief” for several years, in which articles by well-known authors and scholars on interdisciplinary topics in the fields of theology, philosophy and science were published. In addition to articles on the life, work and reception of Teilhard de Chardin, the Freiburg circular presented natural philosophical approaches that can also be interpreted in terms of natural theology . He also commented on critically exaggerated approaches such as special forms of sociobiology . The group also sought critical discussion with representatives of creationism . The “Creation and / or Evolution” dispute between Carsten Bresch and the British biochemist Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith in the Agemus circular over several issues may be representative of this activity .

Catholic Church and Teilhard de Chardin

The historically tense relationship between the Catholic Church and the natural sciences has also been dealt with in some Agemus articles. The print and the commentary on the letter from Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli to the rector of the "Institut Catholique" Archbishop Paul Poupard on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Teilhard de Chardin by Helmut Riedlinger is an example: "Teilhard finally accepted by Rome?" The letter was presented by many press organs as a revocation of the Vatican Monitum of 1962, in which Teilhard was accused of serious errors. Helmut Riedlinger came to a much more sober assessment of the letter: “The letter from the Cardinal Secretary of State is not a revision of the earlier statements of the Holy See to Teilhard de Chardin and cannot be interpreted as such. [...] ”On the other hand,“ the blatant differences in the way of seeing and speaking in the Monitum from 1962 and the letter from 1981 […] cannot be canceled either. ”The Monitum, which does not contain a word of recognition of Teilhard's merits, is predominant The letter of Cardinal Casaroli, which served the positive appreciation and in which the reservations against Teilhard were formulated extremely cautiously, clearly contradicted.

Activities of the Vienna Section

After the cessation of the Freiburg circulars in autumn 1984, following a discussion on the subject of "Evolution or Creation" between Carsten Bresch and a Freiburg theologian on Austrian television, the Vienna section of the working group (now part of the Association of Austrian Scientific Societies VWGÖ) was founded under the Directed by Gerhard Pretzmann . The Vienna Section took up the tradition of the Freiburg circular and from 1987 published the “AGEMUS-Nachrichten Wien”. AGEMUS Wien currently organizes a monthly interdisciplinary theological and scientific lecture in the Natural History Museum Vienna and organizes an annual seminar on this topic.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ “What is Agemus? The A rbeits G ommunity E volution, M enschheitszukunft U nd S was innfragen 1981 of an interdisciplinary, more theologically / biological seminar circle at the University of Freiburg. We, those involved, are united by the conviction that the evolutionary worldview of the Jesuit father Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) represents a decisive key to understanding the current human situation , despite different attitudes to religious questions . In addition, we believe that this knowledge is a prerequisite for finding solutions to the world problems that are constantly piling up. ”( 1. AGEMUS Rundbrief . Freiburg i. Brsg., September 1981, page 25).
  2. ↑ Helmut Riedlinger: How does evil come into the world? - Teilhard de Chardin's interpretation . In: Agemus Rundbrief , June 1982, page 5 ff.
  3. ↑ Carsten Bresch: Our universe is balanced - like a pencil that has been on its tip for 20 billion years (presentation and commentary on the 11th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics from December 12th to 17th, 1982) . In: Agemus Rundbrief . Special issue 1983, page 1953 ff .; Michael Kunst , Armin Kyrieleis: Erasmus Darwin - The Temple of Nature . In: Agemus Rundbrief . Fall 1984, page 3 f .; Reinhard W. Kaplan: Many worlds - only some animated? “The attitude” of the universe to the creation of man ( anthropic principle ) . In: Agemus Rundbrief . Summer 1983, p. 139.
  4. ↑ Carsten Bresch: Sociobiology, egoism around the corner? . In: Agemus Rundbrief . September 1981, page 11 ff.
  5. ↑ AGEMUS, circulars 4/1982 to 4/1983.
  6. ↑ in: Agemus Rundbrief . September 1981, page 7 ff. This Casaroli letter was originally published in the German edition of Osservatore Romano on June 19, 1981.

literature

In the following, literature is listed that represents the work of AGEMUS very well.

  • Carsten Bresch, Ursula Niesert, Thomas Becker, Helmut Riedlinger (Red.): AGEMUS-Rundbrief: Working groups on the evolution of humanity's future and questions of meaning . 13 issues from September 1981 to autumn 1984. No. 1981-1984 . Freiburg i. Brsg.
  • Carsten Bresch: Intermediate stage life - evolution without a goal? Piper, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-492-02270-7 .
  • Adolf Haas : Teilhard de Chardin Lexicon - basic terms, explanations, texts . 2 volumes.
  • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Man in the cosmos . Beck, Munich 1959, ISBN 978-3-406-45541-4 (original title: Le Phénomène Humain .).

Web links