Abstract
In this lecture, Professor Kemp will discuss what modern science and Catholic theology can tell us about the question of Adam—his animal ancestry and the possibility of a single couple as the ancestors of the entire human race. Professor Kemp has been working on questions of evolution and theology for many years. His article “Science, Theology, and Monogenesis” (2011) is widely recognized as having made a major contribution to Catholic discussion of the possibility of there having been a single couple from whom the entire human race is descended. His archival research at the Vatican is adding to our understanding of Pope Pius XII’s important encyclical Humani generis (1950). He is also the author of the well-received The War that Never Was: Evolution & Christian Theology (2020) and is currently writing a book tentatively titled Accommodating Evolution: Science & Catholicism (1831–1950). He taught in the university’s Department of Philosophy from 1989 to 2019.