Cosmic Purpose

by Toyohiko Kagawa, Thomas John Hastings (Editor)

Overview

On Christmas Eve in 1909, twenty-one-year-old Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) rented a room in Kōbe's worst slum where, apart from two years of study in the United States, he remained with his wife and co-worker Haru for more than ten years. They engaged in pastoral work, evangelism, social reform movements, and literary activities, founding numerous institutions that are still in operation today. After publishing a best-selling novel in 1920, Kagawa began to draw the attention of people from around Japan and the world. His literary output was prodigious, amounting to more than 300 books. Often compared with his contemporaries Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, Kagawa was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1947, 1948) and three times for the Nobel Peace Prize (1954, 1955, 1956). Challenging the materialism of Charles Darwin and the claim of H. G. Wells that ""we must give up any idea that evolution is purposeful,"" Cosmic Purpose draws on research in physics, chemistry, astrophysics, mineralogy, genetics, and biology to offer evidence of purpose in the vast span of evolutionary history from the atom to human consciousness. In his attempt to renew our sense of wonder at this process, Kagawa proposes a ""logic of finality"" that links life to purpose. ""Not since the writings of Teilhard de Chardin has there been a book of such awe-inspiring depth and scope as Kagawa's. He has produced a magnificently sustained argument for purposefulness in the universe. It is a single-minded pursuit of one theme that brings together an amazing array of scientific discoveries and an original blend of the human and ethical dimensions."" --Eric Scerri, University of California, Los Angeles ""Cosmic Purpose is an extraordinary example of how religion and natural sciences complement each other. In its endeavor to provide a coherent answer to the question of whether the universe has a purpose, this book is sure to ignite theological and philosophical debate."" --Luis X. Lopez-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City ""The history of science contains certain key books that stand above all others for their importance in shaping the public debate. One book of enormous intellectual beauty that until now has been unknown in Western circles is Kagawa Toyohiko's Cosmic Purpose, a monumental attempt to reconcile a respect for religion with a respect for science. The result is a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking text, arguably even more relevant in the twenty-first century."" --Michael Graziano, Princeton University, New Jersey ""The book is nothing less than remarkable. Kagawa's work points forward toward features in contemporary scientific discussions about teleology, convergence, and various forms of selection, as well as opens up new discussions between science, theology, and philosophy on evil, salvation, and the nature and purpose of being human."" --Jan-Olav Henriksen, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo ""In the interdisciplinary insights this book offers into the realities of nature, contemporary readers will discover Kagawa's deeply suggestive philosophy that integrates nature and religion."" --Kayama Hisao, Director of the Kagawa Archives and Resource Center, Japan ""From the perspective of 'ontological emergence,' this book may be read as a distinctive natural theology harmonizing the one and the many."" --Inagaki Hisakazu, Tokyo Christian University, Japan Thomas John Hastings is Senior Research Fellow in Science and Religion at the Japan International Christian University Foundation in New York City and Research Fellow at International Christian University and the Kagawa Archives and Resource Center in Tokyo. He was formerly Director of Research, Associate Director, and Houston Witherspoon Fellow in Theology and Science at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton and spent twenty-three years teaching in Japan, most recently as Professor at Tokyo Union Theological Seminary from 1995 to 2008. He

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498217064
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Series:	Veritas , #12
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Thomas John Hastings is Executive Director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) in New Haven, editor of the International Bulletin of Mission Research (IBMR), and adjunct faculty at Yale Divinity School. He was formerly Senior Research Fellow at the Japan International Christian University Foundation in New York City; Director of Research, Associate Director, and Research Fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry; and adjunct faculty at Princeton Theological Seminary. While serving with his wife, Carol, as Presbyterian Church (USA) Mission coworkers in Japan (1988–2008), he was a tenured faculty member at Hokuriku Gakuin University, Seiwa College, and Tokyo Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of Practical Theology and the One Body of Christ: Toward a Missional-Ecumenical Model (2007) and numerous articles, chapters, and translations in Japanese and English.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction 1

Acknowledgements 27

Preface 29

Directionality in Natural Selection

1 Natural Selection and Directionality 31

The principle of natural selection 41

Opening and closing in natural selection 48

Laws governing selection 50

Oparin's materialism 27

Statistical mysteries 28

The development of a teleology of selection 31

2 Standardization in Natural Selection 66

Integral standards in natural phenomena and the principle of natural selection 67

Integral ratios and design 77

Yukawa Hideki's theory of the elements and standards in the universe 90

The direction of a priori selection 93

3 The Fitness of the Natural Environment 104

Henderson's theory of selective tendencies 104

Tendency in water 109

Finality in rocks 117

The fitness of soil for life-forms 122

Latent Purpose in the Structure of Life

4 Latent Purpose in the Structure of Organisms 131

Adaptation in the inner environment of organisms 131

The finality of enzymes 134

Generating electricity through proteins 138

Adaptation in physiologically free mechanisms 144

The phenomenon of life as seen in muscle activity 148

The appearance of organizers in living bodies 150

Adaptability in the mechanism for nourishment 153

5 Adaptation in the Inner Environment 157

Adaptation in the inner environment of living things 157

Dürkhen's teleology of life 162

Adaptation in the genetic mechanisms 166

6 Attuning to the Struggle for Survival 178

Adjustment in the struggle for survival 178

The Essence of Cosmic Purpose

7 Knowledge of Cosmic Purpose 189

The structure of purpose 192

A resolution of Kant's antinomies 198

Chance and purpose: the rise of cosmic evil 205

Mechanism and purpose 214

Absoluteness in purpose 227

Types of purpose 228

Directionality and purposive design 229

The many faces of purpose 232

8 The Emergence of Self-Conscious Purpose 246

The unfolding of self-conscious purpose 246

Darwin's teleology 252

The unfolding of conscious purpose 255

9 Cosmic Evil and Its Salvation 263

The final end of creative cosmic evolution 263

The dawn of the universe 265

Cosmic evil and its salvation 267

Index of Personal Names 271

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Not since the writings of Teilhard de Chardin has there been a book of such awe-inspiring depth and scope as Kagawa's. He has produced a magnificently sustained argument for purposefulness in the universe. It is a single-minded pursuit of one theme that brings together an amazing array of scientific discoveries and an original blend of the human and ethical dimensions."
—Eric Scerri, University of California, Los Angeles

"Cosmic Purpose is an extraordinary example of how religion and natural sciences complement each other. In its endeavor to provide a coherent answer to the question of whether the universe has a purpose, this book is sure to ignite theological and philosophical debate."
—Luis X. Lopez-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City

"The history of science contains certain key books that stand above all others for their importance in shaping the public debate. One book of enormous intellectual beauty that until now has been unknown in Western circles is Kagawa Toyohiko's Cosmic Purpose, a monumental attempt to reconcile a respect for religion with a respect for science. The result is a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking text, arguably even more relevant in the twenty-first century."
—Michael Graziano, Princeton University, New Jersey

"The book is nothing less than remarkable. Kagawa's work points forward toward features in contemporary scientific discussions about teleology, convergence, and various forms of selection, as well as opens up new discussions between science, theology, and philosophy on evil, salvation, and the nature and purpose of being human."
—Jan-Olav Henriksen, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo

"In the interdisciplinary insights this book offers into the realities of nature, contemporary readers will discover Kagawa's deeply suggestive philosophy that integrates nature and religion."
—Kayama Hisao, Director of the Kagawa Archives and Resource Center, Japan

"From the perspective of 'ontological emergence,' this book may be read as a distinctive natural theology harmonizing the one and the many."
—Inagaki Hisakazu, Tokyo Christian University, Japan

Editorial Reviews

"Not since the writings of Teilhard de Chardin has there been a book of such awe-inspiring depth and scope as Kagawa's. He has produced a magnificently sustained argument for purposefulness in the universe. It is a single-minded pursuit of one theme that brings together an amazing array of scientific discoveries and an original blend of the human and ethical dimensions."
—Eric Scerri, University of California, Los Angeles

"Cosmic Purpose is an extraordinary example of how religion and natural sciences complement each other. In its endeavor to provide a coherent answer to the question of whether the universe has a purpose, this book is sure to ignite theological and philosophical debate."
—Luis X. Lopez-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City

"The history of science contains certain key books that stand above all others for their importance in shaping the public debate. One book of enormous intellectual beauty that until now has been unknown in Western circles is Kagawa Toyohiko's Cosmic Purpose, a monumental attempt to reconcile a respect for religion with a respect for science. The result is a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking text, arguably even more relevant in the twenty-first century."
—Michael Graziano, Princeton University, New Jersey

"The book is nothing less than remarkable. Kagawa's work points forward toward features in contemporary scientific discussions about teleology, convergence, and various forms of selection, as well as opens up new discussions between science, theology, and philosophy on evil, salvation, and the nature and purpose of being human."
—Jan-Olav Henriksen, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo

"In the interdisciplinary insights this book offers into the realities of nature, contemporary readers will discover Kagawa's deeply suggestive philosophy that integrates nature and religion."
—Kayama Hisao, Director of the Kagawa Archives and Resource Center, Japan

"From the perspective of 'ontological emergence,' this book may be read as a distinctive natural theology harmonizing the one and the many."
—Inagaki Hisakazu, Tokyo Christian University, Japan

From the Publisher