Selfish Genes, Selfless Redemption

David Deane’s Nietzsche and Theology is a difficult, brilliant but perhaps flawed engagement with Nietzsche and his philosophical descendants from the standpoint of Christian theology....

The dichotomy of violence and peace we see in Augustine is given real biological structure by Deane who offers a model of the self driven by self genes being infected with the viral ‘meme’ of Christianity which causes all manner of anti-natural acts like loving our enemies and turning the other check. Using Nietzsche (and Barth) Dean offers a forensic anatomy of the City of God....

Dean has provided a “grammar” for Christian engagement with Nietzsche and the traditions he represents which both affirms the truth of Nietzsche and is totally orthodox. Let me put that another way, he shows how Christianity, postmodernity and Neo-Darwinism are totally compatible! And showing them as such will allow the Christian alternative of peace to be seen in a way it hasn’t been seen since Augustine! This is an amazing achievement. He does it with flair and subtlety but his theological ability, the ability to think theologically seems to be in the tradition of a Barth or Von Balthasar. {the full review}

[via Prolegomena]