Nathaniel Messer
Biographic Data
| ID | 218163 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nathaniel Messer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nathaniel |
| FAMILY NAME | Messer |
| SIGNATURE | MESSER N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Baylor University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8479-9419 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Evolution, Animal Suffering, Eschatology, and Ethics
This paper explores the ethical implications of an ongoing debate about evolution, animal suffering, and the goodness of God. Christopher Southgate describes a “fault-line” between those who believe the struggle, suffering, and destruction of the evolutionary process are aligned with God’s good purposes in creation and those who regard these evolutionary “disvalues” as contrary to God’s good purposes. Recent efforts at dialogue across the fault l…
The Decline of the Human? Identity, Agency, and Justice in an Age of Emerging Neurotechnologies
Emerging neurotechnologies promise to make possible the collection and analysis of users’ brain data, the connection of brains to machines or other brains, and modification of brain functions. This article explores questions about identity, agency, moral responsibility, and social justice raised by these technological prospects. The ethical analysis of these questions is framed in terms of the common good, understood as the conditions that make f…
Neurorights and the Common Good
Can Science Inform Christian Ethical Reflection on Gender Identity
This article explores whether and how research into biological influences on gender identity can and should inform Christian ethical reflection on gender diversity and gender nonconformity. First, the current state of genetic and neuroscientific research on gender identity is surveyed. While the scientific findings are as yet preliminary, tentative, and sometimes contradictory, researchers argue that they already give grounds for thinking that ma…
What (if Anything) Should Christian Theology Learn from the Cognitive Science of Religion
This article asks what, if anything, Christian theology should learn from the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Two possible answers are explored. The first is that Christian theology has nothing to learn from CSR. This is rejected in favour of the second: theology can learn from CSR by appropriating CSR insights carefully and critically to a theological understanding formed first and foremost by Scripture. Karl Barth’s theological critique of…
The Practice of Food Justice
Despite aspirations toward more equitable and sustainable food systems, alternative food movements have been critiqued for reproducing the inequalities of the agrifood system they contest. This article examines the challenges a group of justice-oriented food hubs face in integrating racial justice into their work. We ask whether the financial pressures of enacting alternative approaches to food hub work within market logics can squeeze out racial…
Beyond ‘Science and Theology’
Methodological questions about the interactions of theology with the sciences have often been framed as the relationship between ‘science and theology’, understood as two distinct and monolithic entities. This paper offers a different way to think about these interactions by asking how scientific insights should contribute to theological understanding of particular questions. With reference to a particular case study - the scientific study of rel…
Judging the Secret Thoughts of All
Of the many futuristic prospects offered by neuroscience, one of the more controversial is ‘brain reading’: the use of functional neuroimaging to gain information about subjects’ mental states or thoughts. This technology has various possible applications, including ‘neuromarketing’ and lie detection. Would such applications violate subjects’ privacy rights? Conversely, if God knows and judges all our secret thoughts, do Christians have any stake…
Current recommendations on the selection of measures for well-being
Measures of well-being have proliferated over the past decades. Very little guidance has been available as to which measures to use in what contexts. This paper provides a series of recommendations, based on the present state of knowledge and the existing measures available, of what measures might be preferred in which contexts. The recommendations came out of an interdisciplinary workshop on the measurement of well-being. The recommendations are…
On Animals, Volume 2
Contributions from Biology
This chapter surveys biological research on selected topics in human sexuality and reproduction. It begins with a brief introduction to the approaches of evolutionary biology and behavioural genetics. Subsequent sections survey insights offered by these disciplines into the evolutionary origins of sex, sexual selection theory and human mating strategies, sexual diversity (particularly same-sex attraction and sexual behaviour), and sexual dimorphi…
R.J. Berry, God’s Book of Works
R.J. Berry, God’s Book of Works: The Nature and Theology of Nature (London: Continuum/T. & T. Clark, 2003), pp. xvi + 286. Paperback £17.99, ISBN 0-5670-8915-0. Hardback £45.00, ISBN 0-5670-8876-6
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R.J. Berry, God’s Book of Works
R.J. Berry, God’s Book of Works: The Nature and Theology of Nature (London: Continuum/T. & T. Clark, 2003), pp. xvi + 286. Paperback £17.99, ISBN 0-5670-8915-0. Hardback £45.00, ISBN 0-5670-8876-6
Contributions from Biology
This chapter surveys biological research on selected topics in human sexuality and reproduction. It begins with a brief introduction to the approaches of evolutionary biology and behavioural genetics. Subsequent sections survey insights offered by these disciplines into the evolutionary origins of sex, sexual selection theory and human mating strategies, sexual diversity (particularly same-sex attraction and sexual behaviour), and sexual dimorphi…
Current recommendations on the selection of measures for well-being
Measures of well-being have proliferated over the past decades. Very little guidance has been available as to which measures to use in what contexts. This paper provides a series of recommendations, based on the present state of knowledge and the existing measures available, of what measures might be preferred in which contexts. The recommendations came out of an interdisciplinary workshop on the measurement of well-being. The recommendations are…
On Animals, Volume 2
Beyond ‘Science and Theology’
Methodological questions about the interactions of theology with the sciences have often been framed as the relationship between ‘science and theology’, understood as two distinct and monolithic entities. This paper offers a different way to think about these interactions by asking how scientific insights should contribute to theological understanding of particular questions. With reference to a particular case study - the scientific study of rel…
Judging the Secret Thoughts of All
Of the many futuristic prospects offered by neuroscience, one of the more controversial is ‘brain reading’: the use of functional neuroimaging to gain information about subjects’ mental states or thoughts. This technology has various possible applications, including ‘neuromarketing’ and lie detection. Would such applications violate subjects’ privacy rights? Conversely, if God knows and judges all our secret thoughts, do Christians have any stake…
The Practice of Food Justice
Despite aspirations toward more equitable and sustainable food systems, alternative food movements have been critiqued for reproducing the inequalities of the agrifood system they contest. This article examines the challenges a group of justice-oriented food hubs face in integrating racial justice into their work. We ask whether the financial pressures of enacting alternative approaches to food hub work within market logics can squeeze out racial…
What (if Anything) Should Christian Theology Learn from the Cognitive Science of Religion
This article asks what, if anything, Christian theology should learn from the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Two possible answers are explored. The first is that Christian theology has nothing to learn from CSR. This is rejected in favour of the second: theology can learn from CSR by appropriating CSR insights carefully and critically to a theological understanding formed first and foremost by Scripture. Karl Barth’s theological critique of…
Can Science Inform Christian Ethical Reflection on Gender Identity
This article explores whether and how research into biological influences on gender identity can and should inform Christian ethical reflection on gender diversity and gender nonconformity. First, the current state of genetic and neuroscientific research on gender identity is surveyed. While the scientific findings are as yet preliminary, tentative, and sometimes contradictory, researchers argue that they already give grounds for thinking that ma…
The Decline of the Human? Identity, Agency, and Justice in an Age of Emerging Neurotechnologies
Emerging neurotechnologies promise to make possible the collection and analysis of users’ brain data, the connection of brains to machines or other brains, and modification of brain functions. This article explores questions about identity, agency, moral responsibility, and social justice raised by these technological prospects. The ethical analysis of these questions is framed in terms of the common good, understood as the conditions that make f…
Neurorights and the Common Good
Evolution, Animal Suffering, Eschatology, and Ethics
This paper explores the ethical implications of an ongoing debate about evolution, animal suffering, and the goodness of God. Christopher Southgate describes a “fault-line” between those who believe the struggle, suffering, and destruction of the evolutionary process are aligned with God’s good purposes in creation and those who regard these evolutionary “disvalues” as contrary to God’s good purposes. Recent efforts at dialogue across the fault l…
Philosophy (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics (5 works) · Environmental ethics (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Theology (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works)