Thriving With Stone Age Minds

What does God’s creation of humanity through the process of evolution mean for how we think about human flourishing?

The emerging field of evolutionary psychology remains controversial, perhaps especially among Christians. Yet according to Justin Barrett and Pamela Ebstyne King it can be a powerful tool for understanding human nature and our distinctively human purpose. In Thriving with Stone Age Minds, Barrett and King provide an introduction to evolutionary psychology, explaining the importance of key concepts such as hyper-sociality, information gathering, and self-control. They then combine insights from evolutionary psychology with resources from the Bible and Christian theology, all focused on the question, What is human flourishing? When we understand how humans still bear the marks of our evolutionary past, new light shines on some of the most puzzling features of our minds, relationships, and behaviors. One key insight of evolutionary psychology is how humans both adapt to and in turn alter our particular environments, or “niches.” In fact, we change our world faster than our minds can adapt–and then gaps in our fitness emerge. In effect, humans are now attempting to thrive in modern contexts with Stone Age minds. By integrating scientific evidence with wisdom from theological anthropology, Barrett and King argue, we can learn to close up nature-niche gaps and thrive, becoming more what God has created us to be.