I observe two new tendencies in the ‘Genesis-creation-debate’.
1. A claim from certain Christian groups that the traditional interpretation was an all literal interpretation.
2, An attitude from hostile scientific groups that they finally managed to ‘prove’ the Bible wrong. There is vast dishonesty in some scientific circles by branding all Bible believing Christians who dare to mention the word ‘creation’ as 'creationists'.
Creationists are a defined group mainly from so called evangelical circles with a simplistic and shallow view of the Bible.
It is historically incorrect and arrogant from modern science to maintain that they forced the church to come up with ideas about Genesis 1-3 that differ from what they claim to be the ‘traditional views’ of the church. A simplistic 100% literal interpretation was never widely accepted nor was an allegorical approach ever widely accepted.
Leaders of the Reformed church tradition in England, Germany and Switzerland like Knox, Zwingli and Calvin was greatly influenced by Augustine of Hippo (4th Century AD).
The point about Augustine is not that we should blindly adopt his specific interpretations. His views are relevant but the point here is his respect for both Scripture and science.
We can learn from him to approach the first chapters of Genesis with less dogmatism and more humility and caution.
What we see today is polarization into extreme viewpoints form all sides. I think "scientific creationism" and "scientific naturalism are good descriptions.
The moderate, traditional view is being ‘dwarfed’ between the warring factions.
The irony is that they often have much in common – two sides of a coin. Both groups place religious and scientific statements on the same level in their attempt to draw religious and anti-religious conclusions from scientific data and theory. Both factions interpret the Bible in terms of scientific views in order to defend so called scientific truths of the Bible or to reject the Bible as primitive science. Some force science out of the Bible and some force science into the Bible.
Back to Augustine - He says that God created all things simultaneously.
He teaches that God created everything simultaneously in the beginning. Some fully developed as we see them today, and other things were made in a potential form - so that in time they might become the way we see them today.
He repeatedly stresses that the six creation days are not six successive ordinary days. They have nothing to do with time. The days of creation "are beyond the experience and knowledge of us mortal earthbound men ... we must bear in mind that these days indeed recall the days of creation but without in any way being really similar to them" (p. 135). St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, translated and annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J., 2 vols. (Newman Press, New York: 1982).
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.... Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by these who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion. (pp. 42-43) St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, translated and annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J., 2 vols. (Newman Press, New York: 1982).
No comments:
Post a Comment