Music in the natural world

Posted on 20/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

Our dawn chorus, though usually initiated by a resident cock pheasant, Philip, squawking for food, has been dominated recently by a blackbird, probably brain-damaged. The blackbird is one of Britain’s most inventively melodic birds (check out this YouTube clip). But this one has become obsessed with a simple diatonic motif, in Bb, which it will usually repeat back-to back before breaking up into half-hearted warbles. Here is my transcription:

Mistle Thrush Continue reading →

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Roots and branches of openness theology

Posted on 18/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

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. Continue reading →

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Francis Bacon, Owen Barfield, Ian Dury, ID

Posted on 11/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

It’s just astonishing how things fortuitously/providentially connect together. PNGarrison has kindly sent me a chapter of a difficult (oh dear…) book by Owen Barfield, which he has painstakingly transcribed for me. Thanks Preston. Barfield was C S Lewis’s great mentor – which has to be a recommendation – and the book, Saving the Appearances, is about the development of the way humans have viewed the world across history. The Amazon reviews tend in general to say, “This book has changed my life: I don’t understand much of it, but I keep coming back to it.” Having read one chapter, I see what they mean. It’s on my Amazon wishlist, and I’ll probably be reviewing it in – oh – twenty years time. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 9 Comments

Jaki – Science and Creation

Posted on 10/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

One of the books often cited with approbium on the Christian roots of science is Fr Stanley Jaki’s Science and Creation. It’s one of the best early (1986) attempts to reverse the Victorian myth that science and religion are incompatible, by showing, to the contrary, how only the Judaeo-Christian concept of creation really made science as we know it possible. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment

Chickens, eggs, concurrentism and Job

Posted on 07/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

One of the strands running through some of these posts is that if we want to understand God’s ways in creation (and therefore scientific questions like evolution), we must also understand how he acts now. I’m speaking here as to Christians, who accept Scripture’s inspiration and authority, but who sometimes say these questions of God’s governance in the world are moot. The same (they say) is therefore true of God’s involvement in natural processes and the vexed question of natural evil.

There seems to be a feeling that the kind of philosophical-theological views proposed in such concepts as concurrentism are imposed upon the biblical text. But I’m going to argue that in many or most cases they are necessitated by that text itself. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 3 Comments

Observing how new orthodoxies arise

Posted on 05/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

Preston Garrison has drawn my attention to a piece by “RJS” on The Jesus Creed, about a christological view of creation. It’s very familiar to me as exactly the same scheme to which I reacted in my series both on divine kenosis and my own seven part series on Christological creation.  Continue reading →

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Inspiration and perspiration

Posted on 29/04/2014 by Jon Garvey

Our commenter Hanan e-mailed me about the issue of scriptural inspiration. He’s been interacting with Dr. Michael S. Heiser, who has an interesting range of views, some of which I agree with, and others not. Although it’s not strictly on the blog’s main theme of creation, it’s an interesting topic. I won’t comment on all the issues Hanan discusses with Heiser – just too diverse a subject. I won’t even deal with all Hanan’s own concerns, as I see he’s had some extensive discussion on the subject on a BioLogos thread about Denis Lamoreux’s views about Scripture. Continue reading →

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The heresy of orthodoxy

Posted on 25/04/2014 by Jon Garvey

I was directed to an interesting piece on First Things from 2007 by Richard Neuhaus, in which he coins the axion: “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.” A provocative proposition – have a look at the argument and see what you think.

Incidentally the theme relates vaguely to a good book challenging the popular idea that the early Church had no orthodoxy – the familiar Dan Brown idea that there was a pot pourri of beliefs until nasty Constantine (or some other spoil-sport) forced everyone into line. It’s The Heresy of Orthodoxy by Kostenberger & Kruger.

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What the new creation teaches about the old

Posted on 23/04/2014 by Jon Garvey

The Christian doctrine of creation is incomplete without a consideration of the concept of the new creation. Not only is Christianity inextricably linked to the idea that, in Christ, the whole cosmos will soon be renewed, but that renewal has been revealed as the end towards which the old creation was always headed.  Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 6 Comments

This is what I meant

Posted on 22/04/2014 by Jon Garvey

I did a series last year (starting here) on the fundamental difference between the original Christian idea of freedom, and the almost universal modern perversion of freedom into “autonomy”, even within the churches. The series arose from my research on the historical teaching on the goodness of creation. Without grasping the radical difference in these two concepts of freedom, one cannot understand why the whole “free process” theology underlying most theistic evolution now is so far adrift from historic Christianity. In fact, it’s hard to comprehend historic Christianity at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Theology | 14 Comments