The Soul and its Destiny: Readings and Dialogues on Science, Philosophy and Religion - A Meeting with Vito Mancuso and Orlando Franceschelli

Abstract

The present work relates to several meetings occurred between the theologian Vito Mancuso and the philosopher Orlando Franceschelli, on the major topic “The Soul and its Destiny: Readings and Dialogues on Science, Philosophy, and Religion”. Mancuso proposes, from a theistic perspective, revisions of fundamental aspects of the Catholicism, such as the original sin and soul concepts, on the light of the current idea of nature. With this purpose Mancuso suggests strong connections with elements of modern scientific and naturalistic observation. Probably this represents the most interesting aspect of the work of this brave philosopher although the assumption of such interpretations may result to be a critical point at a deeper scientific analysis. Franceschelli, a natural philosopher, proposes a rigorous lay vision of nature; starting from the great Greek philosophers, he highlights the strong contradictions existing between this conception and the idea of creation in modern doctrines. Despite this criticism, Franceschelli endorses an explicit opening, proposing an interesting concept of evolutionistic theism which leads back to the idea of a Kenotic God. We consider this opening interesting in so far as it is possible to propose a distinction between evolutionistic theism and deism.