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Search Results for: Theology of nature
Finding humans origins from biblical theology #2
In the last post I tried to show the overall thematic “plot” inherent in the Pentateuch or Torah, which John Sailhamer calls its “compositional strategy”. This makes the foundation-document of Israel a narrative of linked themes, which I will list below the fold.
Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology
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Finding humans origins from biblical theology #1
Around thirty five years ago I noticed something very significant in the book of Deuteronomy (during an uninspiring church Bible study, as it happens), which I’d never heard of before and have seldom come across from others since. It’s in ch.5, in which Moses, addressing Israel on the border of the promised land after their wilderness wanderings, restates the Ten Commandments of the Sinai covenant, and says: Hear, Israel, the decrees and the laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this … Continue reading
Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Theology
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Methodological theology, naturally
There’s an interesting new series of YouTube videos (of which I confess to having heard only two so far) of a conference discussing alternatives to methodological naturalism. The organiser is, of course, an ID group – which is hardly surprising, as according to most mainstream scientists MN is just fine and dandy. What you don’t doubt, you don’t examine that carefully. But as I’ve been suggesting here and here there is at least an argument for its being a hindrance not only to the consideration of God’s role in nature, but also to some aspects of understanding nature itself.
Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science, Theology
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Consensus science, fringe theology
BioLogos was ostensibly, as far as I can see, constituted to deal with one main problem. And that is, the problem that Evangelicals, especially in America, did not accept evolutionary theory. This was perceived to lead to two main problems. Firstly, in apologetics, Evangelical Christianity was in danger of being intellectually sidelined, unnecessarily alienating the educated community by denying the evidence of science. Secondly, pastorally, Christians brought up in Creationist churches were liable to be stumbled on encountering the strength of the evidence for evolution when they studied science, thus leading unnecessarily to abandonment of their Evangelical faith.
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology
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Unforeseen consequences of de-historicizing theology
I haven’t commented much about BioLogos in recent months, perhaps realizing more that it’s just one small player in the scheme of the science-faith discussion, which is in turn one small player in God’s project of salvation. But I still get occasional reminders that its approach is problematic. One is the excellent article by Jamie Smith, which in turn responds to a piece by Loren Haarsma.
Posted in Adam, Creation, Theology
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Designer theology for an undesigned universe
A good bit of my reading of late has, intentionally or unintentionally, heightened my awareness of just how much whole patterns of thought we take for granted have changed over the years and centuries. For example at a fairly high resolution, a book I read on protective colouration by Stanislav Komárek showed just what changes have come and gone, and sometimes come again, in evolutionary theory since Darwin.
Posted in History, Philosophy, Science, Theology
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The limitations of (excluding) natural theology
Much discussion recently amongst the usual suspects (including both BioLogos and Uncommon Descent) on a Wall Street Journal article by Eric Metaxas, suggesting an increasing support for theism from modern science. Unfortunately it’s behind a pay-wall, but seems to have majored on cosmic fine-tuning, together with support for the “rare earth” hypothesis.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology
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The Nature of the Physical World
One of the great mysteries of modern life is why materialism as a philosophy refuses to lie down and die. Ted Davis on BioLogos pointed out recently that the modernist Samuel Schmucker believed in 1920 that Victorian science had discredited materialism. I’ve just completed a series of reviews in which mathematician and philosopher William Dembski argues that present knowledge of the nature of information has done the same. Today I want to address the book by astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington, the British “father” and expositor of both relativity and quantum theory, from the 1927 Gifford lectures.
Posted in Philosophy, Science, Theology
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Roots and branches of openness theology
A week or two ago I finally got down to reading Jonathan Edwards’ Freedom of the Will, of 1754, which I downloaded a while ago when the discussion on the blog drifted from “nature’s autonomy” to “free will”. These discussions have a tendency to do that, and Edwards seems to confirm my previous view that this is almost inevitable, given the theological roots of both.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology
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The creation theology of the psalms and its application
I’ve just read an excellent recent paper by J Richard Middleton, comparing the views of creation given in Psalms 8 and 104. If you don’t have access to Academia.edu you might not be able to access it, which is a shame as it has a lot to say on the view of creation theology I’ve been developing here over the last three years or so. That view differs from some of the common church teaching on “fallen creation”, but only because it recovers historical Christian doctrine. But it differs far more from the novel and quite incompatible theologies commonly presented in modern Evangelical theistic evolution and – as the last … Continue reading
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology
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