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CHOSEN AND EQUIPPED: THE ELECTION OF HOMINIDS IN EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY AND THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION Once upon a time, the human species was thought to be less than 10,000 years old. It was thought that humans were created as-is by a Creator, and that the universe was relatively young. Charles Darwin changed all of that when he published his now infamous work On the Origin of Species. In an instant, humanity learned that its story was incredibly longer than they could have imagined, and that their story was inextricably bound up with other creatures. In the century after Darwin, humanity has discovered that it has a shared evolutionary lineage with chimpanzees. We now know, for instance, that the last common ancestor (LCA) for what would eventually become chimpanzees and what would eventually become modern anatomical humans (MCH) lived roughly 7 million years ago. During the last 7 million years, the human species evolved through a process of migration and mating, under the tutelage of natural selection, into our present state. All this points to a simple yet profound conclusion: Modern anatomical humans are incredibly similar to their ancient relative, the chimpanzee. By some accounts, the genetic difference between apes and humans is as small as 1.2%, which means that apes and humans share 98.2% of the same DNA.1 Needless to say, scientific revelations such as these have both challenged and informed theological anthropology and the nature of the image dei in humans. The Genesis accounts of creation clearly show special divine favor being passed on to humans above all other species in the cosmos: Beginning in Genesis 1, where God created man and woman in his image and calls them very good, and then extending to Genesis 2 where God created Adam from the dust of the earth and from his own ruach. Put simply, humans have a special role in God’s world, a role that is often discussed theologically with the doctrine of election (God’s choosing) and imago dei. This paper will explore, from an evolutionary perspective, the relationship among 1) the historical doctrine of election, 2) the nature of God’s image in humanity, and 3) how they relate to evolutionary science and the average Christian in my congregation. The thesis that drives this paper is that roughly 7 million years ago, at the same time that scientists theorize the LCA existed, God elected hominids, who eventually evolved into modern anatomical humans, to serve as God’s divine image bearers among a world of other species. To that 1 “DNA: Comparing Humans and Chimps,” AMNH, accessed April 21, 2014,
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/human-origins/understandingour-past/dna-comparing-humans-and-chimps.