Resurrection and atonemenent

Posted on 20/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

There’s an illuminating video on YouTube by specialist on the Resurrection, Dr Gary Habermas, entitled The Resurrection Argument That Changed a Generation of Scholars. Well worth the investment of 90 minutes. In it he outlines what he calls “the minimal facts approach” which has shifted the centre of balance in New Testament studies from skepticism to acceptance that the bodily resurrection of Christ belongs to the earliest strand of Christianity. So we have even unbelieving scholars like Bart Ehrman placing the tradition within a year or two of the crucifixion, and other leading scholars like James Dunn reducing that to as little as six months.

There may still be a need to counter allegations of fraud, swoon theories, and other ideas such as those found in Who Moved the Stone – but this does seem to deal a decisive blow to the conceit of the resurrection as a slowly developing wish-fulfilment legend or a concretisation of the subjective spiritual experiences of “the early Christian community.” Continue reading →

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The same yesterday, today and forever – except for the fallible phase

Posted on 18/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

Following some links through from Bilbo’s blog there’s yet another discussion about the limitations of Jesus’s human existence here. I’ve touched a little bit on the “fallibility” of Jesus here  and here because it seems to be a growing assumption amongst “post-evangelicals” that Jesus sometimes got things wrong. Firstly it follows from kenotic models of the incarnation – in which Jesus empties himself of his divinity to enter our world (which I hope I’ve dealt with in the second of my linked posts above), and secondly, as the first link shows, it’s projected from general principles – in this case from (over)interpreting the Chalcedonian definition – if Jesus is like us, and we make mistakes, then so did Jesus. The key point to note is that they say it is important that Jesus be just like us if he is truly to relate to us. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Theology | 2 Comments

The limits of human freedom

Posted on 16/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

In the discussion on my last post  GD took the discussion into the area of human freedom (which, as usual in discussing origins questions, I had avoided because of the TE tendency to conflate free-will with free-nature, whatever they mean by that). But having raised it maybe looking at some aspects of free-will itself may be of value to some.

The discussion between penman, GD and myself suffers the disadvantage that we all agree, I think, on a classical theological concept of human freedom as being within, and subsumed by, God’s overarching sovereign purpose. But that’s not the commonest view nowadays. So I want to set up some questions and scenarios arising from what I take to be the more prevalent way of seeing things. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 22 Comments

Where the conflict really lies (episode 20 1/2)

Posted on 12/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

A good video of William Dembski with rubbish sound is posted on UD here. It confirmed to me the conclusion that the divisions in the science-faith spectrum are usually drawn in the wrong places. There are really only two important positions, corresponding to design and non-design. Period. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 12 Comments

Gleanings from “Adam’s Ancestors”

Posted on 11/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

I’ve been reading a book brought to my attention by Penman (you might want to add some thoughts of your own, if you’re around, P), called Adam’s Ancestors by David N Livingstone. It’s a history of the various theories about pre-adamic man since the idea was first suggested by Isaac La Peyrère in the 17th century, which if it seems esoteric, is. It was of interest to me in general because of modern attempts to retain a historical Adam in an evolutionary scheme, on which I thought it might cast some light. Continue reading →

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology | 11 Comments

Transitions and predictions

Posted on 09/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

BioLogos has re-posted a video on transitional fossils from 2011, which would have been more useful if it had tackled some of the doubts many have had over the incompleteness of the fossil record since Darwin’s time. Instead it set up a Creationist strawman in the form of Kirk Cameron and his notorious crocoduck. It’s hard to believe Cameron ever took his hybrid animals seriously, but if he did it’s certainly a comment on the lack of intellectual sharpness amongst some US Fundamentalists – but we knew that already.

It’s also obvious that his arguments are not those which have been discussed by serious critics of Darwinian evolution, and particularly of classic gradualism, over the years. I doubt that even many thinking Creationists really believe evolution posits random chimaeras of modern creatures. And no serious critic is unaware of the branching nature of evolutionary lines. Many are even more aware of their reconvergence by HGT than some Darwinians seem to be. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science | 3 Comments

Just fearfully and wonderfully this time

Posted on 07/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

I found this rather nice meditation on what is is to be human in Gregory of Nyzanzius’ Second Theological Oration, XXII. I reprint it for no better reason than that it appeals to me: Continue reading →

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Jesus is too conservative for Christians

Posted on 05/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

Today the UK Parliament discusses enabling homosexual marriage and thereby totally redefining marriage. We are assured that, although there is a free vote, it will pass its second reading because all three major parties are for it. The political élite appears, therefore, to have disenfranchised the Christian churches and the other main religious groups, which have come out almost universally against the move (barring the infinitesimally small number of Unitarians and Quakers, as I mentioned here). There is no longer a political party representing Christian teaching – a sobering point to have reached. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Theology | 5 Comments

King Richard’s descendants

Posted on 05/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

I guess the whole world knows that King Richard III’s skeleton has been found in Leicester. Two things about it particularly interested me. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | 6 Comments

Aristotelian musings

Posted on 01/02/2013 by Jon Garvey

Ed Feser has a helpful discussion on the way that, in Aristotelianism-Thomism, efficient causes can both be real, and subject to God as teleological first cause. In this way, the concept of evolution can be perfectly compatible with the God of Chriostianity who disposes all things according to his will. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 6 Comments