I have been very slowly reading through The Evolution of Adam by Peter Enns. I am nowhere near the end, not even up to the meat of his topic, which I understand is to involve an examination of Pauline soteriology, how sin and its consequences entered into humanity via the sin of our one proto-elder, and that we are saved from sin and its consequences through the action and sacrifice of Jesus. I understand that Ennis intends to look at this teaching in light of current thought about evolution, with an expected absence of a unique common “Adam,” and also of current academic thinking about the nature of the Old Testament scriptures. The topic interests me greatly. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Creation
“The Evolution of Adam” byPeter Enns: some early thoughts
Filed under ALL, Bible, Book Reviews, Christianity, Theology
Predation and a Good God?
There is a particular fact about the known life forms in this universe that I find very distressing in view of my assertion that there is a creator God, who is Good. I don’t know if it is currently in fashion in atheist circles or not, but it has always appeared to me a pretty strong point for their side. That point may be summarized thusly:
If creation is at heart “good” why is it that all animal life, and even some plant life, lives only by the destruction of other life? Continue reading
Filed under ALL, Christianity, Theology
Thoughts on the Holy Trinity:
For quite some time, I have wanted to write at length concerning a subject dear to my heart. I’ve been drawn into several discussions with Muslims, Christians and seekers that touch on the ultimate reality of God, what is He like, and why does it matter. A couple of these conversations are here, and here. Of course, it is meaningless to say that “I worship God” if I neither know nor care who He is or what He is like. It would be like saying “I love my wife” without knowing, or caring to know, anything about her.
I am referring of course to that absolutely bedrock assertion of Christians that God is triune, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. In its fullness, it is maddeningly beyond our grasp, and yet if true, it represents the core and source of all that is, seen and unseen. Continue reading
Filed under ALL, Christianity, Theology, Uncategorized
“What’s the Point of it all?” : a cross post from St. Disillusion
Browsing through the blogs, I found a very interesting blog from “St. Disillusion” on “Christianity is a Travesty”, with a post here:
I am so taken with the blog and the good saints comments, even more his questions, that I posted a rather extensive response to his remarks about the purpose of life. Since I have been mulling these ideas over for a post here, I decided to break protocol and cross post my own response, although I very much encourage you to go visit with Saint D. I expect to return often.
For the record, I thing God is greatly pleased when we ask such questions in the same spirit with which a child, having been wounded or undone by the actions of a parent, never less comes to that parent in faith to make his complaint. Think the book of Job.
Below is my response, which I hope to flesh out almost as a theme to these pages.
Filed under ALL, Christianity, Marriage, Theology
Is Creation Finished?
Mr. D. C. Toedt, who is a friend of mine from my church, writes a blog called The Questioning Christian
In a post entitled “The world isn’t broken, it’s just unfinished”
He suggests
1. Suppose hypothetically that God is still creating the world, using processes we’re only beginning to kinda-sorta understand — processes that entail generating lots of variations and keeping the ones that “work” as the starting point for later variations.
(These processes of the ongoing creation seem to include us as construction workers, incidentally: our powers of imagination let us generate new variations, while our powers of perception and memory let us see and remember — imperfectly — what does or doesn’t work.)
This hypothesis is not totally implausible, not if you take a long view of what we think we know of history. …
Now, D.C. (for whom I have a great deal of respect) and I disagree about much in the church, including what is the very nature of “church” and even what it means to be christian. I would argue that to be a christian means to accept Jesus as Lord, as being God incarnate who died in the flesh and rose again so that we might be released from the bondage of our sin. I will let D.C. speak for himself, which he does quite well, but he would more describe it as following the commandments of Jesus in that we are to love God and our neighbor, and teach others to do the same.
But in this post, I think he has it pretty much right. The main difference is that Continue reading
Filed under ALL, Christianity, Theology
Random Musings 