The Fall Re-examined in the Light of Modern Science

Luke Janssen

Polling agencies (Pew; Gallop) have repeatedly found that a majority of Christians believe

humans have always existed in their present form. Teaching from the pulpit (and often also from

within the Academy) continues to hold in view a primal pair in a blissfully perfect

Mesopotamian setting—the only sentient hominids on the planet—engaging in a single act of

defiance which introduced death and disease, and set humanity down a path of rebellion against

God.

However, many scientific discoveries now challenge these beliefs on many levels. These show

humans arising through biological evolution out of an African origin together with other hominin

species who had the potential to develop religious ideas (Neanderthals; Denisovans). Genetic

evidence utterly precludes a primal pair. Fossil evidence of death and disease goes back millions

of years. Temples and religious artefacts dedicated to a search for the Divine are scattered all

around the globe.

These findings require a re-examination of certain Christian beliefs, something which the

Academy is now beginning to do. One core tenet is that of the Fall. In what sense are humans

fallen creatures and broken image bearers, and how do we better convey that theology to students

of the Academy, to the laity in the pews, and to our unchurched neighbors? One appraisal of

human history would suggest that humans have always been on an upward trajectory

biologically, intellectually, morally, religiously, and theologically. I will argue that humans have

not fallen from perfection, but from potential; not from the ideal, but from what could have been.

God Saw that It Was Good, the Problem of Evil, and a Scientifically Informed Theodicy

Anjeanette (AJ) Roberts

The Scriptures and human experience make abundantly clear that we have limited perspective.

Our limited perspective can lead to rushes in judgment in all manner of circumstances. This

tendency certainly holds true in response to natural disasters, frequently categorized as natural

evil due to the real destruction, pain, and suffering they cause. Natural evil seemingly subverts

Christian claims of God's goodness and power and, thus, represents one of the greatest

apologetic (and possibly personal) challenges we face today.

I propose that a greater understanding of nature, obtained through scientific discoveries, corrects

our rush to judgment in the face of these natural phenomena and serves as the basis for a

theodicy against natural evil. Three brief case studies—earthquakes, bacteria, and viruses—

highlight how these evils are actually vitally important for human flourishing. These case studies

invite us to revise our thinking about things we judge as evil primarily due to our impoverished

understanding or perspective.

This scientifically informed theodicy against natural evil invites us to consider how we may

similarly rush to judgment about the evils of adversity, pain, and suffering. There, too, we find

hidden potential for much greater good. As other notable theologians and authors have done, I

call for a consideration of how nature, Scripture, and the incarnation affirm God's good

intentions in regard to the formation and maturation of the human soul in the midst of adversity

and trials.

Language, Empathy, and Morality: Adam’s Evolutionary Journey to Maturity and Guilt

Jay Johnson

In the last decade, science effectively ruled out an original “first pair” as the origin of our

species, and 8 million Millennials transferred their allegiance from Jesus to “none of the above.”

Those two facts are related. When asked, many dropouts say the literalist interpretation of

Genesis 1–3 forced them into a dilemma—either evolution, or the Bible.

In reply, this paper reads the biblical and scientific narratives of human origins in concert to

reveal some surprising resonances. It begins by sketching the story of human evolution from the

start of the Homo genus through the “Out of Africa” migration and the “Great Leap Forward” of

the cognitive revolution. How are these events related to ha’adam and imago Dei? The evolution

of symbolic language allowed for the possibility of true morality. Only after acts became

symbolized could they represent abstract classes of action such as “good” or “evil.” Multiple

lines of evidence point to the period just before the “Out of Africa” migration as the time when

humanity developed a lexicon of abstract words—the sine qua non for mature moral knowledge.

Simultaneously, this was the birth of conscience. At that point, the “fall” was not only inevitable,

it was historical.

This paper thus attempts to resolve two key questions in the evolution/Genesis dilemma:

Can ha’adam and the “fall” be located in history?

Can the origin and transmission of sin be explained in an evolutionary context?

God’s Agape: Multiple-Routes Design for the Universe

Chris Barrigar

Current Christian theologies of Creation and apologetics often fail to take sufficient account

of a range of elements within mainstream scientific knowledge today. In particular, it

remains unclear how such phenomena as randomness and contingency, probabilistic physics,

thermodynamics, massively-large numbers, astrobiology, evolution, and multiple-

realizability all fit with a teleological universe. Moreover, the apparent inability of such

features to fit with a purposeful universe is frequently used by Materialists (atheists) to

critique Theism. The author proposes a new account of God’s design of the universe, called

“the Agape/Many-Routes account,” which contends that, and demonstrates how, these

phenomena are strategically built into the universe by God in order to achieve God’s agape-

love telos for the universe. This enables Christians to gain a more comprehensive picture of

how contemporary science fits with faith, provides a powerful pro-evolution alternative to

Intelligent Design (of Behe, Demski, et al.), and provides new resources in responding to a

variety of Materialist arguments against Theism.

The Mystery of the Watery Creation in Genesis 1

Alan Dickin

The creation accounts of Genesis are recognized as some of the most profound works ever

composed, but are also acknowledged to be works of profound mystery. Why did God in his

wisdom reveal creation in a way that appears to contradict a scientific account of origins? And

why do the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 seem so different? Beyond their different

perspective, these accounts describe acts of creation in a different order and in very different

environments. Genesis 1 begins in water and describes the creation of plants, then animals, then

man; Genesis 2 begins with dry dust and describes the creation of man, then plants, then animals.

The watery context of Genesis 1 suggests a linkage with the story of Noah’s Flood, seen by

many scholars as an act of ‘un-creation’ that returned the earth to its initial chaotic state.

However, rather than Genesis 1 inspiring the story of un-creation in the Flood, it was more likely

the experience of the Flood that inspired a vision of creation described in Genesis 1. This vision

probably began with the chaotic watery darkness of the Flood, and its ordering of the Heavens

and the Earth paralleled the re-ordering of the world after the Flood. The recipient of this vision

would have heard the divine command and saw its creative power, but in turning his experience

into words he spoke out of a pre-scientific world-view.

From Boomers to Doomers:

How Scientific Reductionism Gave Birth to Contemporary Nihilism

Jamin Hübner

The sense of meaningless in contemporary culture has been thoroughly noted by cultural critics,

sociologists, mental health professionals, philosophers, and others. Yet it remains a puzzle for all

to ponder: How can an age of increasing material prosperity yield increasing suicide rates and

thriving city life lead to radical loneliness? My paper will suggest that the ethos of modern

scientific reductionism is central in the loss of meaning, and that the modern scientific enterprise

is inherently slanted towards anti-semantic (i.e., meaningful) outcomes. Using cognitive

linguistics and the work of Owen Barfield as a springboard, this presentation will explain the

mechanics of such big-picture “deconstruction,” offer a non-reductionist perspective on

“causation,” and suggest steps we can take to avoid the temptation of hegemonic metanarratives

and produce a more hopeful future.

Alterations in Times, Seasons, and Biblical Text:

The Impact of Horological Science on the Interpretation and Translation of Scripture

David Van Dyke

In advancing from the primitive precursors of sundials to today’s atomic clocks, the magnitude

of human achievements in the science and technology of horology – the study and measurement

of time – are almost unparalleled. Sustained scientific and technological efforts over many

centuries has enabled the measurement of time with amazing accuracy and precision, and was

foundational to the advance of the whole scientific and technological enterprise. But as historians

of technology (e.g. Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization), and perceptive critics of our

secular age (e.g. Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness) have emphasized, it has also

fundamentally influenced human thought and perception. Daily life in modern civilization is

completely regulated by chronometric technology. This has undeniably molded the

unconsciously-held bedrock assumptions of the modern worldview.

In reflecting on the challenges in interpreting early Genesis (Honouring the Written Word of

God), theologian J.I. Packer suggested that “clock-time” assumptions play a significant role in

literalistic approaches to Scriptural interpretation. This presentation will explore how

assumptions rooted in daily practice of horological science, and the clockwork cosmological

view derived from it, have profoundly influenced both Biblical interpretation and translation.

The particular instance to be explored in depth is the evolution of the Hebrew text of the

“refrain” of Genesis 1 into the rendering of such Reformation-era versions as the KJV, which

continues to have a dominant role in shaping popular and theological views of the Creation Days.

In Defense of Chaos: Leviathan, Unpredictability, and an Ethos of Wonder and

Reconciliation

Alex Breitkopf

This paper will progress in three parts. First, using Riffaterre’s semiotic approach, particularly

his “two-stages” of reading, I will explore the imagery of Leviathan as it is presented in the

biblical text, especially in the book of Job. I will argue that the biblical imagery presents

Leviathan—broadly understood in the ancient Near East as a creature/force of chaos (something

hostile to the created order)—as something outside of human control and yet, in contrast to the

ancient understanding, wholly part of the created order.

Second, after having done this, I will draw connections between the biblical presentation of

Leviathan, as an uncontrollable yet integral part of creation, and “chaotic” natural systems—as

written about by Tom McLeish (Professor of physics at Durham University)—such as

earthquakes and storms, which exhibit patterns that are unpredictable by modern science.

Finally, taking these together, I conclude that chaos, understood as unpredictable systems or

forces outside of human control, is an integral and intended part of the created world. This

understanding, rooted in both a biblical worldview and modern science, suggests an ethos and

ethic for our interaction with and our understanding of the natural world (human and non-human

creation) that is grounded in wonder and reconciliation rather than in systems based on

domination and control.

Servanthood and Service:

The Challenges of Implementing Biblical Perspectives within Natural Resource

Management

Lynn Braband and Susan P Rupp

The intersection of a biblical vision with science can be particularly challenging when seeking to

implement such a vision within science as applied to modern issues. We will explore some of the

challenges within one area of natural resource management, wildlife biology, especially in

seeking to use scriptural concepts in guiding our involvement. We will explain the paradigm

undergirding modern wildlife management, the impact of an increasingly pluralistic society, and

the implications within our areas of professional involvement. In the U.S.A. and Canada, the

historical and legal system that undergirds the management of wildlife and similar natural

resources has become known as the Public Trust Doctrine. This states that these resources are the

property of the country’s citizens, with government agencies serving as trustees, holding the

resources in trust for current and future generations of the public, who are the shareholders and

beneficiaries. The public, however, has become increasingly diverse, consisting of multiple

stakeholders with often conflicting value-sets. After reviewing some of the extensive research on

the impact of sociocultural factors on these values and the increasing focus on the role of ethical

analysis, we will describe how we seek to use biblically informed thinking, such as Imago Dei,

servanthood, humility, and stewardship, in two areas: environmental consulting and human-

wildlife conflicts.

Love Is a Radical Way of Knowing

Nathan Kwan

The mechanistic worldview underlies the disciplines of science, technology and applied sciences.

I define the mechanistic worldview as a material and reductionist worldview in the same

category as logical positivism. I am interested in this topic because my undergraduate degree was

in Engineering. I was exposed to a mechanistic worldview that was at odds with Christianity.

The history of the 20th century has led to unintended consequences in the adoption of the

mechanistic worldview, including Eugenics, the horrific scientific experiments in Nazi Germany

during World War II, and the destruction of the environment.

Hans Von Balthasar is a critic of this mechanistic worldview in Theo-Logic 1. Balthasar suggests

there is a difference between empiricism, which is the approximate method of knowing an

object, and subjective knowing. Kierkegaard address a similar point by distinguishing between

objectivism and subjective knowing. That is, ‘subjective’ knowing is a committed relationship

between the subject and the object. In contrast, objectivism is a detached form of knowing. What

is this subjective way of knowing? I propose that this subjective way of knowing is love. That is,

love is a more mature and perfect way of knowing an object.

I will look at similar viewpoints shared by Henri Nouwen, Simone Weil, Wolfgang Pannenberg,

C.S. Lewis, and Robert Jenson. I consider that Balthasar’s Theo-Logic and Love Alone is

Credible are important in understanding his theological method, his understanding of love as a

way of knowing, and his criticism of the modern worldview.

Reconciling with the Earth, Caring for the Land

Linda Schwab

From both a theological and a scientific perspective, human beings are inextricably embedded in

and inter-related with all the natural order. Scripture describes this relationship as a covenant,

one in which humans bear a unique responsibility to knowingly praise God in daily life and

work. The current ecological crisis is, therefore, also an ethical and spiritual crisis, manifested in

both alienation from nature and the failure to recognize limits to wants and desires.

The vitally necessary response to this crisis is reconciliation. Reconciliation goes beyond

“environmental stewardship” or “creation care,” because these phrases so often describe the

“care” and “stewardship” of an absentee landlord. Reconciliation takes particularly effective

form in care of the land, a practice open to and required of all in daily life. Land care also

particularly acknowledges and supports the rural regions of this country, which are increasingly

abandoned by the church.

The witness of Scripture on the vital necessity of land care is reflected in tradition, reason, and

experience. Tradition, as the living interpretive encounter, ranges from ancient—such as John of

Damascus and Athanasius—to modern. It includes not only scholars such as Ellen F. Davis but

also writers whose theological contributions are less recognized than their literary ones, Gerard

Manley Hopkins and Wendell Berry. My response to and synthesis of these sources is formed by

a career in science and more recently by the work and life of a smallholder-farmer.

“When I Consider Your Heavens”: Cosmology and Worship in the Scientific Era

Nathanael E. Lange

Although many Christians and scientists tacitly accept that science and religion endeavor

towards wholly distinct, if not contrary, ends, there is a precedent in Scripture for the knowledge

and understanding gained through scientific inquiry to serve to enrich believers’ worship. This

paper will consider Psalm 8 as a model for this specific application of scientific insight. The

paper will address the theological and anthropological impact of the psalmist’s cosmology, as

well as how the relationship between the resultant theology and anthropology serves as a call to

worship. It will then explore the potential theological and anthropological impact of a

contemporary cosmology informed by prevailing scientific theory, and how the intersection of

the consequent views of God and man might similarly call believers today to worship.

“Wise and Sensible”: The Sheep of His Pasture

Margaret Flowers

On the sixth day of creation, the first animals spoken into existence by God are livestock (Gen

1:24–25). This placement gives domesticated animals special honor in creation. In ancient Israel,

perhaps the most important variety of livestock was the sheep, used for clothing, for milk, for

meat, and as part of the ritual sacrifices. Sheep were also a symbol for the people of God.

However, today they are often pictured as not terribly intelligent – far from one of the wonders

of creation.

Basing this description on today’s most specialized sheep breeds, many of which exhibit very

strong flocking behavior and docility, loses richness and depth critical to the biblical text.

Primitive breeds, in contrast, are typically more independent and alert in their behavior. They

still need a shepherd’s protection, but their greater individual autonomy compares more closely

to recognized human behaviors.

This is uniquely evident today in the sheep of Iceland, a primitive northern breed. A genetic

strain of these, which Icelanders named “leadersheep,” have an exceptional ability to pick out a

safe path and to sense danger and impending weather changes. The skillful shepherd works with

the special abilities of these “wise and sensible” flock leaders. For over 500 years of Icelandic

Bible translation, Micah 2:13 renders the one leading the flock as a “leadership sheep.” This

powerful interpretive image, offering an intriguing perspective on God’s work with humankind,

is one I too see in action on my farm.

Antiquity and Arithmetic: A Rhetorical-Critical Reading of Noah’s Ark

Dustin Burlet

Noah’s ark is a topic that has caught the imagination of countless people throughout history—

both ancient and modern. But if Noah was indeed a real figure, who not only existed within

space and time but also built/victualed the ark and survived a cataclysmic Deluge while on board

(all of which Scripture seems to markedly indicate), numerous questions arise concerning this

Brobdingnagian vessel that demand our attention. To be clear, though many scholars note that

the relations between the length, width, and height of Noah’s ark (roughly 450 feet long, 75 feet

in width, and 45 feet in height) recapitulates the standard shape of most sea-faring vessels

(30:5:3), many contemporary scholars also raise concerns about the dimensions of Noah’s ark

due to established knowledge of ancient seamanship and naval engineering, which provide

evidence signifying that Noah’s ark would have been impressively large compared to other ships

in antiquity. Acute awareness of these matters, alongside increased cognizance of academic

arithmetic in the ancient world (particularly within the Flood accounts of Atrahasis and

Utnapishtim of Gilgamesh), lead one to consider the possibility that the dimensions of the ark

may have been devised with a rhetorical effect in mind and that they may not be relative to the

actual size of the vessel itself. This paper will thus examine the Noachic Deluge narrative using

the methodology of rhetorical analysis to better ascertain whether or not the dimensions of the

ark are hyperbolic numbers—purposefully exaggerated for rhetorical effect to make a

(theological) point.

The Ways of Interpreting God’s Objective World:

Schemata, Paradigms, and Worldviews

Daniel Hitchcock

My paper explores the issue of interpretive frameworks by interrelating insights from

psychology, philosophy of science, and Christianity. Following a three-fold strategy I will first

highlight how subjectivity takes place at the level of the individual as explained by cognitive

schema theory. Recent insights suggesting a possible neural basis of our interpretive frameworks

will also be discussed. Second, I will show that, fundamentally, the same cognitive process lies

at the heart of human social efforts and collaboration. Interpretive frameworks not only function

for us as individuals but also in collective ways. This will take us into the domain of the

philosophy of science which has shown that subjectivity manifests via shared interpretive

frameworks. The process has been labeled in a variety of ways with the most recognized being

‘paradigms’. Third, I will address the implication that arises from all of this subjectivity. If we

interpret the world via subjective frameworks, is not this a position of relativism? Is not this

antithetical to the Christian faith, which upholds the notion of objective absolute truth? Several

articulations of Christian worldview philosophy have provided an answer to help resolve the

apparent conflict. It is based upon the biblical insight that the way we see and understand stems

ultimately from the condition of our heart. In conclusion, I will argue that interpretive

frameworks are fundamental to our God-given human nature and that to affirm their role in

human functioning poses no threat to a biblical view of truth and reality.

Why Have You Forsaken Me? Dying in Ecology and Theology

John Wood

Ecology is a life science. But why do ecologists, who spend their time studying the mechanisms

of death, rarely name it? I am a Christian. But my Christian friends emphasize hope and new life,

seldom talking about death. Yes, there is Easter and the regular celebration of communion, but as

the ecotheologian Paul Santmire reminds us, we Christians “are unable to deny death. A religion

[with] a crucified Messiah as its fulcrum hardly permits that.” I am challenged: do we believers

practically deny the death we claim by faith?

“My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?” These are some of the most fearful words ever

spoken. Without God, in death we are utterly alone. We spiral into the oblivion of non-being –

nothingness. Yes, talking about physical death is troubling for us. Yet here is Jesus facing his

own death in a peculiar way – “for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross”

(Hebrews 12:2). Physical death was not optional for him, nor is it for us. Without the witness of

his resurrection, death would leave us empty of relationship.

Physical death is the necessary gateway. But when death is framed solely as the enemy, our options

appear limited. Today a convergence of economic and demographic pressures, together with ecological

discovery and medical-technical developments, present unprecedented challenges to traditional notions of

death. We need new insights and fresh theological resources to meet the challenging questions of caring

for people in extremis and caring for the earth.

Moses as Scientist-Philosopher: A Chronological Analysis of Mosaic Authorship in

Medieval Hexameral Literature

Ryan Smith

Scriptural interpretation and its relationship to scientific inquiry has been a consistent topic of

research and debate in the modern period, but there has been comparatively little analysis of

interpretative models from the medieval period. Recent research in medieval hermeneutics and

interpretation, particularly in regard to authorial theory (such as Alastair Minnis’ Medieval

Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages) offer considerable

opportunities to deepen our understanding of medieval interpretations of creation texts.

This paper will partly remedy that deficiency by exploring Moses’s role as an author

in Hexameral literature from its Christian inception until the late medieval period; with a

particular focus on the increased use of Aristotelian logic and its interpretive implications in the

late medieval period. This analysis will reveal steady assumptions throughout the period about

the role of Moses as author in his moral excellence, his divine inspiration, and his philosophical

and scientific wisdom, but will also reveal the increased interest in his historical situation to

explain difficult aspects of the text. This paper will explore three interpretation tensions: between

human and divine authorship, between the quadraplex sensus and the multiplex modus, and

between the literal sense of the text and philosophical/scientific beliefs. Each of these tensions,

and their various resolutions offer a lens to understand the various convictions that were at work

in medieval interpretation and why the historical situation of Moses became much more

significant in later interpretation.

Experiments in Environmental Guerilla Journalism

Joshua Arp

In their recent studies of the book of Judith, both Benedikt Eckhardt and Michael Chyutin argue

that the Second Temple period witnessed a Hasmonean literary hegemony. No one could enter

the literary “party” without the proper “costume.” Judith’s anti-Hasmonean author, however,

would not be stopped at the door. Instead, cleverly the author composed a tale that was

acceptable on the surface but that smuggled a culturally subversive structural message.

Here the linguistic notion of surface structure versus deep structure is a helpful analogy, and as a

“green” newspaper columnist I have wondered if today’s secularist media fortress can be

breached by similarly smuggling structural contraband in surface-compliant disguise. In short,

can a Christian journalist translate Christian structures into seemingly unrelated spheres? For

example, I tried to write an environmental translation of Psalm 104 as my “secular” Christmas

ecological column.

I call this endeavor “guerilla journalism.” To engage in guerilla journalism, it is necessary to

contemplate the structural distinctives of the Christian worldview. Two of my mentors in this

task are C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton, and in this paper, I utilize them as conversation

partners. Having charted the course, this paper not only gives examples of my own experiments

in environmental journalism, but sets an agenda for further forays in this field and invites others

to contemplate the possibility of pursuing this type of ministry in this and other disciplines.

The Missing Link in the Science and Religion Debate: Taking the Problem of Human

Sinfulness Seriously

Kerry Colling

Throughout history humans have been marked by conflict of all sorts. Although religion or

religious ideas have been inherent in the most brutal political and military conflicts in our

history, beginning in the twentieth century there has been a pervasive dispute between science

and religion in North America. Some thinkers place the blame for this on the “warfare thesis”

advocated by John William Draper and Andrew Dickinson White, who were motivated by anti-

religious/anti-God sentiments. However, there has also been an “in house” war between those

Christians who largely accept the findings of science and those who vehemently reject a majority

of claims made by the scientific enterprise, since they find these claims at odds with their

interpretation of pertinent passages in Scripture.

What has been largely ignored in our understanding of contemporary debates is the historic

teaching on the nature of humans and our propensity to sin. Given this teaching, we should

expect conflict and even warfare when science butts up against the claims of religion and faith,

since those who advocate different positions are fallen human beings.

In view of this reality, those of us who are Christian need to acknowledge our own situatedness

and strive to understand those with opposing views (whether they are other Christians or identify

as atheists or agnostics) so that a path to healthy dialog ensues. This paper will survey a few

recent studies in the science-religion debates and show how a Christian view of human nature,

rationality, and faith may just take the heat out of the conflict, as well as foster new ways of

dealing with the opposition.

Reading Psalm 7 in Historical and Canonical Contexts:

From Formulary Oath to Didactic Davidic Petition

Andy Witt

How does an ancient text, written in a specific historical context, speak with relevance to future

generations?

Historical-critical study of Psalm 7 has identified it—and other psalms of individual lament—as

having an original setting within a juridical context in ancient Israel. Some scholars have even

argued that the psalm is the formulary which was spoken during the court scene pictured in 1

Kings 8:31–32.

While there is much in the content of the psalm that could speak to such a context, a canonical

reading of the psalm calls for a reevaluation of the ongoing relevance of such a setting. The work

of Brevard Childs and Gerald Sheppard has emphasized the need to recognize that “semantic

transformation” takes place as a psalm has been recontextualized within its new setting as

Scripture, in the book of Psalms.

In this paper, I argue that the biographical superscription of Psalm 7, which connects it to the life

of David, provides such semantic transformation, which allows the psalm to speak to future

generations of God’s people. In this new context, the figure of David functions as the persona

through whom the psalm is voiced, allowing it to function not only as a prayer of David

connected to his biography, but also as Davidic instruction for future praying persons. Through

the superscription, then, Psalm 7 provides a model for understanding how semantic

transformation might also take place in other psalms in the Psalter.

Providence and Probability

E. Janet Warren

Providence, or God’s interaction with the world, is an important topic in Christian piety. People

confidently claim specifics (“God answered my prayer for sunshine at my party), and generalities

(“God will provide a way”). However, much is misunderstood. We confuse chance in the world

with purposelessness and atheism, we confuse the Creator and his creation, and we confuse

group and individual behavior. Furthermore, our cognitive processes are biased toward seeing

patterns and meaning, and our sinful tendencies are toward certainty and self-justification. These

misunderstandings can be clarified and our biases mitigated by increasing our knowledge of

probability and randomness in the world and the Bible.

In this presentation, I suggest that an understanding of the nature of the world can enhance our

understanding of divine providence. Creation is wonderful but complex and indeterminate; most

occurrences result from multiple interacting processes, and are best described in terms of

probability not certainty. Since creation reflects the Creator, scientific observations are

compatible with Christian theology.

First, I review the statistical concept of probability and the concept of randomness and its

usefulness in the world. Then I review cognitive science research on decision making: we tend to

make quick, emotional judgments, ignore sample size, base rates, and randomness, prefer

anecdotes to statistics, and exhibit multiple biases. Next I review probability and randomness in

the Bible and Christian theology, noting, with consideration of interpretive nuances, that these

are compatible. Randomness respects freedom, allows for creativity, and increases possibilities. I

also discuss providence in relationship to probability theory and suggest that middle-ground

models best approximate the state of the world. In conclusion, I propose that probability theory is

a helpful tool for Christianity; if understood and employed with humility and wisdom, it can

quantify uncertainty, improve our judgments, enhance our faith, and inform our pastoral care.

Creating the SuperCrip: Disability, Gene Editing, and the Imago Dei

Nathan Stenberg

With the genesis of CRISPER-babies and genome engineering, the idea of creating a “designer”

human quickly shifts from fantasy to reality. This new technology has left ethicists, theologians,

and philosophers pondering how such technology should be used. In the disability community

there is great debate between whether gene editing will become a new form of eugenics, used to

eliminate whole groups of disabled people in the name of social betterment, or if it will provide

individuals with disabilities an opportunity to achieve a prosperous life free of their medical

disabilities. How might the biblical vision of the imago Dei give guidance on how to incorporate

a theological perspective within discourse around disability and the boundaries of gene editing?

This paper will address this question by first offering a brief introduction to how Christian

intellectual history and creation theology has influenced scientific thought around genetics and

disability by engaging with Terence Keel’s new monograph Divine Variations: How Christian

Thought Became Racial Science. Second, an exegetical account of the imago Dei (Genesis 1:26–

28) with a lens of disability will be utilized to give a theological perspective to the conversation

around disability and the potential for gene editing.

Ecological Wisdom, God’s Wisdom, and Human Vocation in Creation

Jeff Wheeldon

The title of this year’s conference—God’s Wisdom and the Wonder of Creation—brings to mind

the Global Greens Charter, the foundational document of a political movement to which every

Green Party in the world belongs. The first principle of the Charter is “Ecological Wisdom”,

which is defined in terms of an acknowledgement that “human beings are part of the natural

world,” a statement of respect for “the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human

species,” and the further acknowledgement that “human society depends on the ecological

resources of the planet, and must ensure the integrity of ecosystems and preserve biodiversity

and the resilience of life supporting systems.”

Such a definition of “ecological wisdom” challenges some long-entrenched theological notions

of anthropocentrism, and aligns well with a stewardship model of theological anthropology that

situates us within what Richard Bauckham calls “the community of creation”. But if human

vocation can be described theologically in ways that are analogous to this definition of

“ecological wisdom”, then another point of the Global Greens’ description of ecological wisdom

becomes even more poignant: that the Indigenous peoples of the world are recognized for having

maintained a more integral relationship with the community of creation than settler cultures, and

as such their cultures and nations are upheld in gratitude as an example or even an embodiment

of ecological wisdom. In this frame, the dehumanizing treatment and cultural genocide of

Indigenous peoples around the world takes on a distinct theological significance beyond the

increasingly obvious racism that has historically and continues to frame settler/Indigenous

relations. From an ecotheology perspective, attempts to destroy the cultures of Indigenous

peoples threaten to eradicate the stewardship role of humanity altogether, destroying the last

vestiges of the function for which humanity was created.

This paper intends to briefly examine Bauckham’s “community of creation” in comparison to the

Global Greens’ notion of “ecological wisdom” in order to establish a resonance that opens the

rest of the Global Greens’ statement to theological implications, and then to expand on the

ethical implications that arise from it in relation to the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples in

North America.

Christ of the Neanderthals:

Redefining the Imago Dei in Light of Modern Paleoanthropology

Brett Potter

Recent work in paleoanthropology has brought to the foreground the diverse array of hominids

who not only pre-dated, but lived alongside Homo sapiens for thousands of years. Scientists call

these closely-related species by names such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans, but we are only

just beginning to understand just how closely related modern humans are – even in terms of

inherited DNA—to these “other” humans, and to how their history is bound up with our own.

The existence of these alternative “human” communities raises a primary question for

theological anthropology – what do Neanderthals mean for our definition of “human”? New

approaches are needed. For example, Rahner’s short book Hominization is fixated on the

question of anthropogenesis: how, or at what point, did human beings become “human” from a

theological perspective? Was there a process of “ensoulment” by which primitive humans

transitioned into creatures with eternal souls, fashioned in the image of God? These kinds of

approaches, however, fall prey to an essentialist view of the human being – the idea that there is

a central set of characteristics which cleanly and clearly mark out the human, theologically

speaking, over against any “sub-human” species. However, our emerging picture of Neanderthals

– that they were in fact intelligent, artistic, and formed complex societies – calls this essentialist

approach into question.

This paper suggests that rather than a structural approach which defines the imago Dei in

particular anthropocentric ways, we ought to pursue a relational paradigm which would see

humanity defined Christologically—in other words, in relation to Christ (as is the case in

Gregory of Nyssa). Theologically, this allows Christ’s “taking on human flesh” to extend beyond

a narrow conception of the human to a broader range of enfleshed creatures, reframing questions

of origin into questions of relationship.

Technology, Time, and Living the Sabbath

Jeffrey McPherson

That we live in a world fundamentally transformed by technology is obvious to everyone.

Whether or not this transformation is good, evil, or neutral is, however, the subject of much

debate. While it seems impossible in the 21st century to live without technology, we do not often

consider how the technological worldview has transformed the mode of our thinking and our

relationship to the world around us. This paper will argue that our technological age (which

transcends simply using technology as a tool) dictates the mode of our thinking and mediates our

relationship with reality in such a way that we become alienated from our true nature.

Furthermore, this paper will argue that the biblical worldview offers an important corrective to

the technological worldview. Keeping the Sabbath, which is an essential part of the law,

encompasses so much more than simply following a given set of rules. Living the Sabbath

requires a transformed heart which prioritizes sacred space and time, dedicating them to the

service of God and others. It is in keeping the Sabbath, properly understood, that we can be

reoriented to the world around us and reconnected to our true nature.

This paper will focus on the concept of time as a means to explore the relationship between the

technological and biblical worldviews.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge on “Our Place among the Infinities”:

The Cosmic Scope of a Developing Theistic Vision

J. Gerald Janzen

In The Age of Wonder (2008), Richard Holmes explores “How the Romantic Generation

Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science” (the book’s subtitle). Coleridge’s prominence in

this narrative is indicated in the lengthy list of citations in Holmes’s Index.

A leading Romantic poet, and for a time a prominent political essayist and editorialist, Coleridge

was also a lifelong avid reader of scientific journals from astronomy to chemistry and physics.

Born two years before William Herschel’s first large telescope opened human eyes to the

vastness of the cosmos, thereby raising afresh (and, for some, disturbingly) the question of “Our

Place among the Infinities,” Coleridge’s eyes were first opened to that vast cosmos by his

clergyman father, and before that to an even deeper mystery by his mother; and the cosmic scope

of his theistic vision perdured throughout his life.

I shall present and comment briefly on half a dozen of his texts, tracking the development of his

vision from the implicit faith of childhood, through the oft-asserted quasi-pantheist sentiments in

his poem, The Eolian Harp, to a fusion of Trinitarian cosmic vision and implicit faith in his old

age.

Becoming New Creations:

Pauline Anthropology in Our Technological Age

Frederick David Carr

Rapid technological advances have led to new anthropological challenges. Specifically, humans

are transforming ourselves through recently-developed technological means, and, in turn, these

alterations are transforming our conceptions of what it means to be human. Discussions about

such changes occur in diverse academic disciplines, the media, religious institutions, and casual

conversation. As philosopher Cressida Heyes argues, our language—at the popular level in the

West—commonly presupposes forms of anthropological dualism. Contemporary discussions of

alterations like sex changes, cosmetic surgeries, and systematic dieting typically assume the

existence of a seemingly static, “essential self” inside of a body that must be changed to conform

to this true self. One also finds a kind of dualism at play in the publications of organizations like

the 2045 Initiative who aims, according to their manifesto, to achieve, the “transfer of individual

human consciousness” to a non-biological body. Although these diverse human transformations

differ in their aims, they share dualistic convictions that a presumably stable “self” exists

distinctly from the body that it inhabits.

As theologians develop theological-anthropological perspectives to address the challenges of our

technological era, fresh engagements with the Scriptures are not merely helpful; they are

urgently needed. This paper seeks to contribute such an engagement by offering some

anthropological insights from Paul’s letters. The paper will argue that Paul’s letters envisage the

human person not as a static entity but as a psychosomatic whole that is constituted by ongoing

processes of transformation in Christ, and whose selfhood is grounded in realities that are not

intrinsic to the person. These insights drawn from Pauline theology exhibit tensions with the

normative dualisms of contemporary discourse, and they challenge notions of an autonomous

self in a disposable body as starting points for conceptualizing self-transformations in the present

age.

Revelation through Mystery: The Breadcrumbs in Creation

Candice Fazar

How can paradoxes in physics help the believer to grapple with paradoxes in the faith?

Challenges in physics, such as wave-particle duality and the relativity of space and time assert

that the things we claim to know are only part of the truth. Thus, even the knowable world of

physics has at its very heart things that cannot be known. It is in accepting and appreciating the

unknowable things about the physical world that we gain a deeper appreciation for and

understanding of the mysteries of faith. We follow the breadcrumbs left behind by the Artist and

Author of creation to seek a new revelation of his likeness. And each mystery we manage to

grasp—even though as peering through a glass darkly—brings us a little closer to Him.

Wells, Springs, and Commodification: Water Rights and Hagar’s Tribulations

Rebecca Copeland

Although biblical authors had no conception of anthropogenic climate change, they did navigate

socio-ecological challenges similar to those that climate change is creating today, including new

patterns of precipitation and limited access to potable water. In this presentation, I argue that

ecomimetic interpretation, or reading with close attention to the non-human characters in biblical

narratives, is a strategy that can identify those ecological similarities in spite of the cultural

divide that separates 21st century Western interpreters from biblical contexts. To do so, I will

apply ecomimetic interpretation to Genesis 16:1–16 and 21:8–21. In the first passage, Hagar

flees Sarai’s abuse, and a messenger of God finds her beside a spring and orders her to return. In

the second, Abraham casts Hagar out of his household with their son Ishmael, and when they

have run out of water a messenger of God rescues Hagar and the child by revealing the presence

of a well. Although interpreters have generally sought to justify either Abraham’s or God’s

actions in these pericopae, identification with the bodies of water and the hydrogeological

conditions of the land represented in these stories reveals a critique of the commodification of

both water and women that remains relevant today.

The Chaotic Waters and the Womb: Pastoral Implications of Conceptual Metaphors

surrounding Birth and Adoption in Science and Scripture

Kristin Helms

Since the publication of George Lakeoff and Mark Johnson’s work on conceptual metaphor

theory, scholars of cognitive linguistics have increasingly recognized that metaphors pervade our

conceptualizations of the world in all areas of life, including both science and religion. It is also

well recognized that metaphors have limits, hiding the aspects of a thing that are not illuminated

by the specific metaphor. Because many metaphors that dominate cultural conceptions of the

world go unnoticed, we do not typically consider the ways in which they are silently empowering

and limiting our understanding. When we hit the limits of our understanding within the

framework of our unrecognized metaphors, and we feel trapped. In such situations, introducing

an alternative metaphor can enable us to see our experiences of reality in a new way.

This paper will explore the pastoral importance of supplementing scientific metaphors with

biblical theological metaphors surrounding the concept of the mother’s role in childbirth. At

present, most women in America conceptualize their ability (or inability) to give birth in terms of

the conceptual metaphors used in medicine, particularly THE WOMB IS A MACHINE. While

this useful metaphor generates fantastic breakthroughs and generally safer births, it faces limits,

especially in its ability to address pastoral issues faced by women who are also persons, not

mechanical objects. By exploring the particular theological metaphors in Exodus 2:1–10 that

BIRTH IS CREATION and MOTHERS ARE GOD’S CREATING REPRESENTATIVES, the

paper will discuss how the Scripture usefully illuminates alternative aspects of birth hidden by

THE WOMB IS A MACHINE, most notably in its presentation of adoption as an actual form of

birthing a child into the world, drawing the child out of the chaotic waters. This has significant

pastoral implications for women in processing experiences of birth.

Evolutionary Creationism: Scientific and Biblical Perspectives

David S. Barnes

Evolutionary Creation is a key bridge in bringing together, at least in dialogue, young earth

creationists, those embracing intelligent design, and humanists. Evolutionary Creation is defined

in this paper as affirming that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, and that God has

used evolutionary processes to create some and perhaps virtually all the vast diversity of present

and extinct life. Evolutionary Creation accepts that evolutionary processes provide the best

current scientific model for the diversity of life and do not compromise biblical inerrancy.

The paper explores the biblical and scientific basis of both Young Earth Creationism and

Evolutionary Creation. It considers the significance of the ancient understanding of the cosmos

in the Bible, which was accepted in one or more forms from Babylonian and Egyptian antiquity

to the Genesis account, and then addresses Galileo’s innovations in the seventeenth century. The

paper will present aspects of Young Earth Creationism (including its position on human

evolution) critiqued from the perspectives of C. S. Lewis, John Stott, Billy Graham, and Pope

John Paul II (all of whom were open, in various degrees, to the science of evolution).

The paper also considers the influence of culture wars on science/faith issues, including those

addressed by Evolutionary Creation. It also reviews the Gallop and Pew Research Center poll

data on the perceptions on origins among scientists and the general public and reflects on the

significance of theological concepts beyond the limits of scientific critique

From World Picture to Worldview: Reading Genesis 1 in Ancient and Contemporary

Contexts

J. Richard Middleton

At first glance our modern scientific picture of a universe of immense size and age seems to be in

tension with the biblical picture of the world, especially as found in Genesis 1. After all, this text

claims that God created “the heavens and the earth” (that is, the cosmos) in six days (then rested

on the seventh); and by some calculations (using the genealogies in Genesis) this took place no

more than 6,000–10,000 years ago.

But going beyond the assumed contradiction in time scale, there are the widely differing

understandings of the size and structure of the cosmos when we compare the Bible with modern

science. The world picture that we find both in Genesis 1 and in many other biblical texts seems

to assume a flat earth founded upon the waters (with the netherworld somewhere “down there,”

either in or below the subterranean waters). At the extremities of the earth were the distant

mountains that extended down into the underworld waters and up into the heavens or sky. These

mountains were thought of as the “pillars” that supported the dome (or “firmament”) of the

heavens, envisioned as a sort of roof over the earth, which held back the cosmic waters above.

This paper will mine the ancient world picture (German Weltbild) or cosmology or “cosmic

geography” (a favorite term of scholars) that the Bible assumes in order to discern the normative

worldview (German Weltanschuaang), the distinctive and abiding theological vision, revealed

precisely through this ancient world picture. Indeed, without attending to the significance of this

ancient world picture, we would miss the important theological claims of Genesis 1, its

theological vision or normative worldview that is relevant to any cosmology.