Inter-Varsity Press

CONTENTS

Foreword - R.J. Berry and T.A.Noble

1. Worshipping the Creator God: the doctrine of creation

David Wilkinson

2. Did Darwin dethrone humankind?

R.J.Berry

3. Theological challenges faced by Darwin

Darrel R. Falk

4. God and origins: interpreting the early chapters of Genesis

Richard S. Hess

5. Original sin and the Fall: definitions and a proposal

T.A.Noble

6. Irenaeus on the Fall and original sin

A.N.S.Lane

7. Theology of the Fall and the origins of evil

Henri Blocher

8. Blocher, original sin and evolution

Richard Mortimer

Epilogue: the sea of faith – Darwin didn’t drain it

R.J.Berry and T.A.Noble

Foreword

The year 2009 is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the publication of his epoch-making work, Origin of Species. Evangelical Christians in particular have debated the extent and mechanisms of evolution, and some hold tenaciously to the fundamentalist rejection of Darwin. But that was not the stance of Evangelical theologians such as James Orr or B. B. Warfield in the decades after Darwin; it was the position adopted by grass-roots fundamentalists in the 1920s in reaction to the way in which T. H. Huxley and others had turned Darwin’s science into propaganda for what later came to be called ‘Humanism’. Today the heirs of those fundamentalists try to turn the doctrine of creation (on which all Christians agree) into a scientific theory, so-called ‘creationism’, which they see as a rival to the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. But they consequently find themselves in disagreement with virtually the whole of modern science, particularly biology, genetics, geology and cosmology.

Those debates are not the subject of this book. Rather, it is an exercise in constructive discussion between science and theology. The eight papers here are written by Evangelical Christians, four theologians and four scientists (one of whom is also a qualified theologian), who accept both the authority of Holy Scripture and the contemporary scientific picture of the world. We believe that, rightly understood, these are not in conflict. That does not mean that we have answers to all the questions which arise, but it does mean that we are prepared to work at resolving apparent conflicts. We proceed in the belief that the universe is the creation of God, but also that it has developed over aeons in the way told by contemporary cosmology. The vastness and unimaginable timescale of the expanding universe only serve to inspire us with greater awe at the majesty and glory of the Creator. If the Lord God is the Creator not of a brief little six-thousand-year-old universe centred on the earth, but of the vast and awe-inspiring beauty of a universe of 13.5 billion years and innumerable galaxies, how much more is his holy name magnified!

Most of the papers in this book focus not so much on the creation as a whole as on the relationship between the story of human origins told by modern science and the story of human origins and of the Fall told in Holy Scripture. ‘Is man an ape or an angel?’ asked Benjamin Disraeli after the publication of the Origin, and answered (as a true politician!), ‘I am on the side of the angels.’ While none of us wishes to contend that humans are angels, Disraeli’s question poses (albeit in rather tendentious terms) the issue we are addressing. How does the Christian doctrine of humanity (what we used to call the doctrine of ‘man’) as created yet fallen, relate to the biologist’s account of the evolution of the human race? If we accept the Darwinian picture of evolution, where does that leave the Christian doctrines of the Fall and of sin? How do we understand ‘good’ and ‘evil’? What basis is there for ethics? And how does this affect the problem of evil and suffering?

Like the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, the doctrines of sin and the Fall are integral to Christian theology. Since the Creator cannot be the source of sin and evil, somehow it is because the human race is ‘fallen’ that there is sin in the world. But many Christian thinkers, particularly since Darwin, have wanted to retain ‘fallenness’, while dispensing with any event called ‘the Fall’. Is that an option for Christian theology? And how would it affect the doctrine of original sin?

The chapters in this volume are edited versions of papers given at meetings of the Christian Doctrine Study Group of the Tyndale Fellowship on 7–9 July, 2008 and Christians in Science on 1 November, 2008. David Wilkinson fittingly begins by putting the doctrine of creation in the context of the worship of the Creator. Theology is never a dispassionate, abstract, neutral discussion of the latest ideas about a concept we call ‘God’. True theology is always the expression of our personal knowledge within the believing Church of the One we know as Father through the Son, Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit. It is certainly an intellectual exercise, but one which is only possible by faith within the worshipping community. R.J. Berry then gives a historical survey from Darwin’s own struggle to relate his science to his faith up to the continuing attempt in the present day to wrestle with the implications of evolution for the Christian understanding of humanity. This includes his own advocacy of the view that Homo divinus should not be equated simply with Homo sapiens. Darrel R. Falk looks at the theological challenges which arose for Darwin himself, and asks whether these were in fact new questions or whether the problems were so intractable for Darwin because he began (like so many of his generation) with a deist rather than a Christian doctrine of God. Rick Hess then contributes a careful examination of the text which has so often been at the centre of debate, the early chapters of Genesis.

T. A. Noble outlines first a clarification of the doctrine of original sin by identifying the difference facets of this rather complex and paradoxical concept, and then attempts to do some fresh thinking on the doctrine of the Fall, shaped (as all Christian theology should be) in the light of New Testament eschatology. A. N. S. Lane then takes a close look at the view of the Fall and original sin taken by Irenaeus, who has sometimes been used (not least by John Hick) as an authority with which to challenge Augustine. While there are differences, the agreement between the two Fathers has too often been underplayed. Henri Blocher next puts us in his debt once again by some critical thinking on some attempts at theodicy which rationalize evil by denying the reality of the Fall. He then considers the options if we are to relate the historicity of Adam to the picture we now have of primeval, prehistoric humanity. In the final chapter, Richard Mortimer engages in critically constructive dialogue with Professor Blocher’s earlier writings. As the editors, we then sum up the implications of our discussion in a final Epilogue.

We offer these chapters as pointers to understanding our place and calling in a world where science is constantly changing and frequently challenging our worldview. We follow Jonathan Edwards, one of the strongest champions of biblical orthodoxy,who ‘regarded Scripture alone as truly authoritative, so earlier interpreters could be revised’. For Edwards and for us, the project of interpreting Holy Scripture and understanding its true meaning is an ongoing and progressive enterprise.

R. J. Berry

T. A. Noble

Epiphany, 2009