Category Archives: Theology

Divine action – smoke, mirrors, or sublety?

Posted on 22/02/2019 by Jon Garvey

1 Kings 11-12 tell the story of one of the most significant events in the history of the kingdom of Israel – that is, the defection of all the northern tribes from King David’s dynasty thus breaking up the chosen people into two kingdoms. Northern Israel quickly lapsed into apostasy and was destroyed by the Assyrians, essentially disappearing from history.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Molinism again

Posted on 18/02/2019 by Jon Garvey

A quick thought here, based on a heads-up to me on Peaceful Science on a thread that, for some reason, doesn’t give me the ability to reply. No matter, because I have more space to reply here.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | 4 Comments

Nasty pests

Posted on 14/02/2019 by Jon Garvey

The environmental message of God’s Good Earth is, in my own eyes, rather muted. Conservation was, after all, a subsidiary theme of the book, though I was pleased that Sir Ghillean Prance, in his endorsement, saw it as a demand for positive action.

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

On distinguishing miracles from providence

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Jon Garvey

In my recent piece about Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, I mentioned how Bacon, supposedly the staunch supporter of methodological naturalism, included both a scientificcally detectable miracle and a providential answer to prayer in an apologetic for the new science that is only 22 pages long. He would appear to cut the world-cake rather differently from many of a scientific bent now, who divide the world sharply between the “natural” and the “miraculous.”

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

The Language of God

Posted on 05/02/2019 by Jon Garvey

No, sorry Francis Collins, not that one. Nor Galileo’s mathematics. I’m referring to the whole science-faith interface, and more.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Design and all that metaphysics

Posted on 28/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

A thread at Peaceful Science tosses around the usual argument-suspects about Intelligent Design. It was set up in an unhelpful way by the common ID argument contrasting Mount Rushmore (a large statue in America, m’Lud, in the form of a carved mountain) with Mount Everest, a “natural” mountain.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Theistic Science and Bacon’s New Atlantis

Posted on 24/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Francis Bacon produced what I suppose one would call a “Utopian Novelette,” unfinished at about 22 pages, just three years before he died. It seems to have been intended as a kind of manifesto for the new scientific project he had, to a great extent, initiated, and so it is worth looking at retrospectively in the light of that project’s enormous success. The Kindle edition is also free, which is another incentive.

Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | 5 Comments

Toledot time

Posted on 21/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

If you’ve spent any time with a Genesis commentary, you’ll know that the book is divided up by statements which have come to be called “toledot” statements. The majority opinion is that these link the compositional sections by introducing the next one with the name of a person from the last, using the formula, “These are the generations of…”

Posted in Creation, Genealogical Adam, Theology | 6 Comments

The Rule of Three again (in ancient Babylon)

Posted on 17/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Early last year I suggested that it was helpful to regard the Bible, narratively speaking, as being constructed like a folk tale in three movements, and moreover that this bears a classic resemblance to the “literary rule of three” in a host of folk stories, and even higher literature.

Posted in Creation, Theology | Leave a comment

Care to return to 1833? And 1970?

Posted on 10/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Every now and again I like to regale you with some esoteric musical item, firstly in case you like the music, and secondly because there are all kinds of truths in music.After all, it’s my blog! For example here I discussed the phenomenon of  “swing” to show that human reality can’t be entirely captured by science.

Posted in Music, Theology | Leave a comment