Justin L. Barrett - Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing

InterVarsity Press
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2021 by Justin L. Barrett and Pamela Ebstyne King

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Cover design and image composite: David Fassett
Images: computer motherboard: Peter Dazeley / The Image Bank / Getty Images
paper background: Peter Dazeley / The Image Bank / Getty Images
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ISBN 978-0-8308-8849-8 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-5293-2 (print)

This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo.

For Jeffrey Schloss,

Someone from whom I have learned a lot concerning how to think

about evolution Christianly and also the person who should have

written this book but could not be persuaded to do so.

JLB

For Aidan, Rhys, Jocelyn, Max, Anika,

Jones, Callie, Hannah, Elyse, Jessica, and Nik

The next generation of my family who give me great hope in the human

speciess ability to thrive through the complexity of life and who

actively and uniquely contribute to the flourishing of our earthly niche.

PEK

SOMETHING ISNT RIGHT. Sure, globally, life expectancy is rising and infant mortality is falling. Violenceincluding warfareis lower in the twenty-first century than the twentieth century. Education is up and starvation is down. By some estimates, less than 10 percent of the worlds population now lives in extreme poverty, while over 70 percent did in 1900. There is a lot to be grateful for, and yet...

In many nations with high levels of economic development, including the United States, people are taking longer to gain financial independence and start their own families. Depression, suicide, and drug addiction continue to ravage lives, particularly the lives of young people. New addictions and addiction-like dependenciesto social media, video gaming, gambling, and pornographykeep popping up. Anxiety disorders may be more common than ever before. Adequate food, security, and other basic resources for living are available to an increasingly large share of humanity, but we dont seem to be flourishing. Something isnt right.

This book is concerned with integrating the best of the human sciences with the best of theological insights around the topic of human flourishing or thriving. Specifically, I suggest that evolutionary psychology and neighboring scientific disciplines can serve as useful tools in analyzing the challenges to human thriving and possible solutions. These tools cannot create full-bodied solutions on their own, but joined with philosophical and theological wisdom, they may be tremendously valuable. Because of this value, this book serves as an introduction to evolutionary psychology contextualized around a particular problem: what does it mean to thrive, and why does it often seem so difficult?