In this book, Jarvis Streeter details Ernest Becker's anthropological theories and compares them with traditional and contemporary Christian thought on human nature, sin, and salvation in order to see how the two approaches compare and where Becker might have insights to offer contemporary Christian thinkers.Ernest Becker was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of human nature and motivation, drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, psychiatry, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy and religion to create what he termed a Science of Man. His goal was to understand the most basic human motives, particularly those that led to evil behavior in order to ameliorate them and create a more humane world. He concluded, following the thought of Alfred Adler, Otto Rank and philosophical and religious existentialism, that the related urges to avoid death anxiety, gain self-esteem and symbolically deny death were the key human motives—ones which were also responsible for human evil—and that religion has had a complex role to play for both good and ill in human history.

The popular belief that a scientific understanding of reality is incompatible with a Christian one is simply wrong. Some Christian understandings of reality do conflict with some scientific understandings. But a thoroughly rational Christian understanding of the origin and history of the universe will be informed by the best scientific theories and the "facts" founded on them. This book weaves a narrative of the origin and history of the universe from the perspective of contemporary science with a Christian understanding of God and of God''s role in the origin and history of the universe. At the center of this integrated narrative is the view that God, who is pure, unbounded Love, is Creator: the zest for life in the universe comes from God, and God is the source of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in the universe. God is amazed and delighted at what God-and-the-world has created; God is saddened by ways creatures have fallen short of pure, unbounded Love, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness; and God''s pure, unbounded Love keeps on trying to persuade all creatures toward Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

In this book, Jarvis Streeter details Ernest Becker's anthropological theories and compares them with traditional and contemporary Christian thought on human nature, sin, and salvation in order to see how the two approaches compare and where Becker might have insights to offer contemporary Christian thinkers.Ernest Becker was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of human nature and motivation, drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, psychiatry, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy and religion to create what he termed a Science of Man. His goal was to understand the most basic human motives, particularly those that led to evil behavior in order to ameliorate them and create a more humane world. He concluded, following the thought of Alfred Adler, Otto Rank and philosophical and religious existentialism, that the related urges to avoid death anxiety, gain self-esteem and symbolically deny death were the key human motives—ones which were also responsible for human evil—and that religion has had a complex role to play for both good and ill in human history.

The popular belief that a scientific understanding of reality is incompatible with a Christian one is simply wrong. Some Christian understandings of reality do conflict with some scientific understandings. But a thoroughly rational Christian understanding of the origin and history of the universe will be informed by the best scientific theories and the "facts" founded on them. This book weaves a narrative of the origin and history of the universe from the perspective of contemporary science with a Christian understanding of God and of God''s role in the origin and history of the universe. At the center of this integrated narrative is the view that God, who is pure, unbounded Love, is Creator: the zest for life in the universe comes from God, and God is the source of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in the universe. God is amazed and delighted at what God-and-the-world has created; God is saddened by ways creatures have fallen short of pure, unbounded Love, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness; and God''s pure, unbounded Love keeps on trying to persuade all creatures toward Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.