No Evolution Allowed (RJS)

 

Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century

Source: No Evolution Allowed (RJS)

Here is the story of Tremper Longman’s ‘conversion’ to theistic evolution.

He stands in a long list of rmarcable people, of (more or less) Evangelical persuasion, who went on a similar pilgrimage of faith. Here is the list of those who share theiir testimonies in this book, along with the above mentioned biblical scholar: N.T. Wright, Scot McKnight, Francis Collins, Jennifer Wiseman, Denis Lamoureaux, James Stump, James K. A. Smith, Richard Mouw, John Ortberg, Daniel Harrell, Ken Fong.

And, for full disclosure, I have to say that I have personally followed the same track, mostly for reasons related to biblical hermeneutics.

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St. Basil the Great – Care for Creation Prayer

Yesterday was Earth Day, Caught up with posts related to the Armenian Genocide Centennial, I did not mark this important day. So. here is a great prayer for creation from the great Eastern Father St Basil the Great.

O God, enlarge within us the sense of
fellowship with all living things,
our brothers the animals to whom thou
gavest the earth as their home in
common with us.

We remember with shame that in the past
we have exercised the high dominion
of man with ruthless cruelty
so that the voice of the earth,
which should have gone up to thee
in song, has been a groan of travail.

May we realize that they live not for
us alone but for themselves and for
thee, and that they love
the sweetness of live.

 

 

Models, Models, Models (RJS)

Models, Models, Models (RJS).

Here are Gerald Rau’s six models for the question of beginnings: on how what is came into being. Worth delving into.

A Tale of Two Scientists: What Really Happened ‘In the Beginning’

Darrel Falk grew up in a “wonderful home and a wonderful church” near Vancouver, British Columbia. A shy, serious child, he had a reputation among his friends for never lying or swearing. He asked Jesus into his heart at age 4, and through an altar call at age 10, asked for a second work of grace, in the holiness language of his Nazarene church. “I feel so clean inside,” he said afterwards in tearful wonder.

Todd Wood was born a generation after Falk in Rives Junction, an unincorporated village in the heart of Michigan. His father was a truck driver, and they lived on 13 rural acres, out of sight of the nearest neighbor. Northwest Baptist, a small, fundamentalist church his parents had helped to start and many relatives attended, was at the heart of his life. He attended a K-12 Baptist school with 25 students in his graduating class. A quiet boy, Wood loved doing research papers, going far beyond teachers’ expectations in tracking down extensive sources. Few in his acquaintance had been to college, and he had never met a scientist.

Both Wood and Falk grew up with absolute confidence in the Bible, a strong sense of family, and a belief that church was the place to find meaning and community. Both of them had an unusual aptitude for mathematics and an interest in science—though neither one had much idea what science was. They could have followed very similar pathways, and in a sense, they did.

Monastery of Bose – Man: Costodian of Creation – An International Ecuemenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality

Find below the conference leaflet in PDF form (source, HERE)

Man – Custodian of Creation – flier

Tim Keller – Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Many secular and many evangelical voices agree on one ‘truism’—that if you are an orthodox Christian with a high view of the authority of the Bible, you cannot believe in evolution in any form at all.  New Atheist authors such as Richard Dawkins and creationist writers such as Ken Ham seem to have arrived at consensus on this, and so more and more in the general population are treating it as given.  If you believe in God, you can’t believe in evolution. If you believe in evolution, you can’t believe in God.

This creates a problem for both doubters and believers. Many believers in western culture see the medical and technological advances achieved through science and are grateful for them.  They have a very positive view of science.  How then, can they reconcile what science seems to tell them about evolution with their traditional theological beliefs? Seekers and inquirers about Christianity can be even more perplexed. They may be drawn to many things about the Christian faith, but, they say, “I don’t see how I can believe the Bible if that means I have to reject science.”

Richard Dawkins intr-un interviu cu preotul catolic George Coyne

On the Theological Cost of Fundamentalism

Scot McKnight published on his blog a series of three posts on the evolution debate. The first one, that introduces the problem, can be found HERE. I have written HERE about the second one, which presents the statements made recently by Al Mohler in favour of the young earth theory.

The third article in this series is the most consistent and I suggest it is really worth reading by those interested in this debate.

McKnight begins by quoting Mohler, who said:

In other words, the exegetical cost–the cost of the integrity and interpretation of scripture–to rendering the text in any other way, is just too high. But I want to suggest to you that the theological cost is actually far higher.

Then he responds: