SOCIOBIOLOGY AND HUMAN-NATURE - A PERSPECTIVE FROM CATHOLIC THEOLOGY

This paper addresses a nonspecialist audience on how sociobiological a ccounts of human nature might be relevant to Christian theology I begi n with some confessional remarks to clarify what I mean by Christian t heology and how I understand it to be related to science. I indicate b riefly why sociobiology might be of interest to theology and then move on to sketch some ways in which sociobiology might relate to theologi cal ethics. My basic point is that sociobiology is directly relevant t o theological ethics in its understanding of evolved human emotional p redispositions but not in its normative reflection proper.