Saving Darwin: Follow Up With Karl

I was humbled recently by a comment made to a blog I wrote several months ago. You may recall back in September I reviewed a book I read titled Saving Darwin; my sarcasm throughout the blog was so thick it could be cut with a knife, and even now when I go back to read it I think, “man oh man, was that comment necessary”.

None the less, my sarcasm served a purpose, it was to release my frustration over (what I perceived to be) the authors failure to deliver on the sub-title of his book, namely, the “how” in How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution. And so my criticism was not so much what the author did say (he said many good things apart from this) but rather, what he did not say, namely, he did not answer the question which the sub-title promised. I did add in my blog however that “if the title of his book was something to the effect of: Saving Darwin: A 20th Century Historical Analysis of the debate between Creationism and Evolution, I would give this book two thumbs way up”.

My humbling comes into play when recently I received a comment from Professor Karl Giberson himself, who evidently read my blog; he begins:


“Hi. Solid review with many relevant comments”

Re-reading my blog, there were many relevant points, but the emotion with which I wrote birthed many unnecessary comments as well, yet Pro. Giberson showed brotherly love and respect by choosing to focus on the positive which he could glean from my review – for this I am humbled and grateful, and reminded of the necessity to do the same!


Then he continues on to briefly clarify a crucial point:

“The subtitle of the book was chosen, over my objections, by the marketing dept at Harper”.


This explains a lot! Like, no wonder he never seeks to develop a “how” of the subtitle, for he even objected to it. This fact does not render my criticism useless, rather it simply redirects it – while I think marketers obviously must be strategic (for example I may have been less prone to pick up the book had the subtitle been something else), I still believe they have a responsibility to be honest, and evidently, the title chosen does not reflect well the purpose of the book which Giberson clarifies as;

“…to ‘explain in an accessible way why evolution remains so unsettling’”.

Some time ago I sent an email to radio personality Bob Dukto asking him if he had read Giberson’s book and commenting that an interview would be interesting. A few weeks later I turned on my car radio on my way to work and sure enough Bob Dukto was interviewing Karl Giberson. What struck me most about the interview was the grace and love which Giberson and Dutko exchanged; there was no doubt in my mind of Giberson’s seasoned faith!

I wish to thank Karl for his grace and I want to exhort anyone who is interested in the history of the debate of Creation and Evolution in the American public system to pick up Giberson’s book, Saving Darwin. Read it critically of course (as we should all things), but there are many good and useful things said, so glean.

United we stand in Christ,

Derek
P.S. to see Karl’s original comment to my blog click here and follow it to the end

A Year of Blogging Theologically

Hello ladies and gents!

I trust all of you had a wonderful holiday season.

With 2008 now behind us and '09 before us I feel it appropriate to take a time out and reflect on where we've been and where I would like to see us go.

Technically I have not been blogging for a complete year since my first blog was in April, none the less, the last nine months of been challenging and were filled with many good and some bad blogging choices and many fantastic subjects I'd like to touch on.

'08

I began by reading, reviewing and growing theologically in my understand of the Atonement of Jesus Christ which has probably had the most return out of everything else I have discussed. The realization of Christus Victor as the over-arching Atonement Theory has literally revolutionized my theology.

Working in conjunction with the Christus Victor motif is Covenantalism (as opposed to Dispensationalism), the discussion of Law and Grace (Why Torah as Covenantal Charter), the biblical motif of Idolatry (though I have not written a blog on this subject yet - forth coming), and a defence of Arminianism (technically, I explained why I reject Calvinism); the scriptures are beginning to unfold for me in a way that makes them relatively coherent rather then the "chopped up", "pick and choose", "unrelated" book of facts I always treated it to be. In short, I'm almost thirty years old and my theology is finally beginning to come together - very exciting.

Of course I've made a few mistakes at times (the Local Pastor and Ex Cathedra comes to mind) and I often write with way too much emotions (review of Saving Darwin 2 comes to mind), but all in all I think this time of blogging has been very beneficial for me, and I hope for you as well.

'09

When I began to blog I had certain intentions - subjects I wanted to address right away - but then I got busy or other subjects popped up and things got jumbled around or I lost the resources necessary to write a well articulated blog (not lost so much as they are in storage and I haven't had time to dig them out). Not to mention other subjects that have taken on a great interest to me which I wanted to blog about, but not before I solidified myself enough in the subject that I could say - for an armature - that my views are educated ones. The following are subjects which I intend to blog about in the 2009 year, but my upcoming blogs are not restricted to these as other interest may take priority:

1. Open Theism: I have given open theology a fair hearing (probably devoting more time and money of books for and against Open Theism then any other subject except perhaps the History of the Bible), and I believe the views of Open Theist are at least worthy to be heard. In the words of one Arminian Theologian: the fanaticism against Open Theism is "over the top" and "I do not see what core doctrines of the Christian faith would be negatively affected by it". We'll explore that question one day soon hopefully.

2. The History of the Bible: If I were a pastor of an Evangelical church I would devote a minimum of one and probably two months annually to teach the congregation how we got the bible. Considering how important the scriptures are among Evangelicals I find it astounding how ignorant most of us are regarding the transmission of our most holy book! And with so many translations available and not to mention the continued lingering stench of "King James Onlyism" which is a devisive and legalistically binding and condemning issue in evangelicalism still to this very day (take it from me, working in a Christian book store - I know!), Christians need to know why they can trust Gods Word.

3. Inerrancy or Infallibality: I have a very high view of scripture, but I wonder how usefully the word "inerrancy" actually is, and whether or not it may actually be a damaging doctrine. After reading several books (by Evangelical authors - not Liberals!), I wish to explore this subject in the future.

4. Others: I would also like to explore other subjects I'll briefly note here: Heaven and the Resurrection; Evil and God; Genesis 1-6; Ancient Israel - Polytheistic or Monotheistic?; Biblical Idolatry; the so-called New Perspective on Paul; and many more subjects.

I look forward to a fruitful and blessed year; pray for me, and I for you.

Derek