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Justin Barrett – Meet the Speakers of Exploring Personhood

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What does it mean to be human? Academic disciplines answer this question in increasingly different ways. Yet how we define a human being affects every aspect of our world.

Join us as we advance the conversation at Exploring Personhood, a Faith + Culture Forum presented by the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on Feb. 10-11, 2022.

Meet Justin Barrett

Justin L. Barrett is President of Blueprint 1543 and honorary Professor of Theology and the Sciences at St Andrews University School of Divinity. Barrett previously taught in Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Psychology, in the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, at the University of Michigan, and at Calvin University. He is author or editor of over 100 scholarly publications. Much of his work concerns scientific approaches to the study of religious thought and its philosophical and theological implications. Science-informed perspectives on human nature and purpose is another of his scholarly concerns.

Barrett’s books include: Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (2004), Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds (2011), Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion (2012), The Roots of Religion: Exploring the Cognitive Science of Religion (with Roger Trigg, 2014), Religious Cognition in China: Homo Religiosus and the Dragon (with Ryan Hornbeck and Madeleine Kang, 2017), and Thriving with Stone Aged Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing (with Pamela King, InterVarsity Academic, 2021).

Lecture Topic

How to Build a Human

What is a human being? Human beings are the animal that is distinctive for its self-control, ability to acquire expertise, and its unusual breed of sociality. These bundles of traits enable humans to love God and love others, as well as serving as God’s representatives on the earth. At their core all of these unusual traits are made possible by the uniquely human ability to share attention and intentions with others. But how then did this ability to share attention and intention with others emerge in our ancestry? Perhaps there is a science-integrated theological answer.

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Center for Faith and Culture

The L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture seeks to engage culture as salt and light, presenting the Christian faith and demonstrating its implications for all areas of human existence.

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