Is God Still the “Creator of Heaven and Earth?”

The Darwin Effect in Theology

17th century conflicts

Galileo

“Choice of David and Zion”L’osservatore romano of Sept. 22, 2005

21st Century Controversies

19th – 21st century reconciliations

Vatican I (1870) Pope Pius XII Divinu afflante

spiritu (1946) Humani generis (1950) Vatican II (1962-65) Pope John Paul II Pontifical

Academy of Sciences (1996)

Pope Benedict XVI Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2008)

Creation

What the Bible says about creation, and why

Lorenzo GHIBERTI (1425-52 )

“Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible….”

Council of Nicaea (325) The Pantokrator presiding over all creation (Monreale, 12th century)

Medieval order

The medieval understanding of the order and harmony of the universe

La sainte chapelle (13th century)

The Darwin Effect

Who is God? (theology) Human relations: competition or cooperation? (anthropology) May the Church alter its structure? (ecclesiology) Is there a divine plan for salvation? (soteriology)

“It is the combination of chance and necessary processes in a fertile universe that best explains the universe as seen by science.” ~ George Coyne, S.J., former director of the Vatican Observatory.

What creation tells us about God

•Tintoretto (1550)

•“From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.” (Wisdom 13:5)

Competition or Cooperation?

Evolving Church?

Hierarchical Corporal

The Divine Plan

•Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

•The Divine Milieu

Baptistery of Florence (11th – 12th centuries)