One of the many false canards used by Theistic Evolutionists to dismiss Young Earth Creationism and is the idea that belief in a literal Adam is something of a novelty. We are told, over and over, that Ancient Near Eastern thought doesn't really care about science or history the way we moderns think about those things. All that really matters is the narrative and the theological ideas behind the stories.
We are told Augustine's "Literal Meaning of Genesis" cautions against pitting the Bible against science, for if we are wrong about the science it will discredit faith. We are told many of the church fathers allegorized the early chapters of Genesis.
Ultimately, the whole science/faith divide boils down to a few misguided fundamentalists creating a false dichotomy between science and faith. (more)
Roger Olson may be the most able articulator and defender of the Arminian viewpoint out there. I thought this was well done.
Here's the heart of how salvation works logically (not chronologically) from an Arminian perspective.
There has been much attention paid to the allegedly insulting words of Pope Benedict toward Islam in a speech titled "Faith, Reason & The University" at the University of Regensburg. The offending remark is one particular line, a quote from 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos in conversation with a Persian scholar, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Of course few of the news articles give any context whatsover to the the quotation. More on that below.
Most of the attention has been paid to muslim denunciations of the Pope's comments.
According to the article from the AP by Benjamin Harvey:
Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet or, worse, a deliberate distortion. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades," Mr. Kapusuz told Turkish state television and radio. He said Benedict will go down in history for his words, "in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini."
In my last post, I cited a few examples of how Mark Noll’s book "Is The Reformation Over?” documented a forty-year long process of dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and various protestant groups. On the issue of justification by grace through faith, numerous statements seem to indicate that the Roman church has become willing to accept, at the very least, the Protestant phrase “by grace through faith”.
It should be understood that Catholics, in my opinion, do not define grace in quite the same way Protestants do, so the chasm is not completely filled, yet the facts that such dialogue has occurred and led to substantial statements of agreement with Protestant sounding wording is something that needs more attention in both the Evangelical and Catholic world.
Noll’s book discusses as well Rome’s recent stance on the authority of scripture. It is the common view among evangelicals that Rome places tradition over scripture, so that scripture must mean only what the church says it means, sort of like many “living document” theorists view the U.S. Constitution. And certain Catholic dogmas, particularly Purgatory, Papal infallibility and the assumption of Mary, are cited as prime examples where tradition has defined doctrines not clearly found in the written text.
An old friend Pastor Matt Mitchell, sent me a link to Scot McKnight's post at Jesus Creed regarding the question "Is the Reformation Over?" McKnight is quoted significantly in Mark Noll's recent book, whose title frames the question. McKnight did a significant study of Evangelicals who had converted to Roman Catholicism. His post on the Jesus Creed site spawned, as of this writing , 78 comments, many of them lengthy.
I got around to reading Noll's book a few weeks ago. In answer to the question at hand, I think it would be good to expand just a bit on a few of Noll's key points. Noll's view seems to be that though the Reformation is not quite over, some of the key points of contention have been significantly worked on, particularly since Vatican II.
A key chapter in Noll's book is a documentation of the numerous, lasting and significant dialogue the Vatican has initiated with various Protestant groups. These included, according to Noll, dialogue with Anglicans 1966-1996, Methodists 1967-1996, Pentecostals 1969-1997, Reformed 1970-1990, Lutherans 1972-1999, Disciples of Christ 1977-1993, Baptists 1984-1988, Evangelicals 1977-1984.
All in all the dialogues are described as cordial, productive and positive. What strikes me is that almost no one I know in the Evangelical community is even aware that these dialogues have been taking place, with the possible exception of that with the Lutherans and the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification. This is unfortunate, in that it has allowed acrimony to continue rather than dialogue on local levels to be initiated.
Hugh Hewitt interviewed Father Joseph Fessio, Provosty of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, on January 5 and posted a portion of the interview on his website. This was a very interesting exchange. Father Fessio is part of a group that has long met for topical discussions with Joseph Ratzinger and groups of Graduate Students, a practice that is apparently continuing now that Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI. Their most recent meeting discussed Islam. A couple of quotes struck me.
First, regarding the spread of Islam and the response to it by Christians in the West...
"... I want to say without exaggeration, and without trying to become histrionic here, I see the trends...I've seen them for years, in Europe, of depopulation as you've mentioned. And their immigration is coming from the South, which is mainly Islamic. And there are, I think there are 98 Islamic countries in the world, and 97 of them do not have religious freedom... And that's what's going to happen to Europe. Once there's an Islamic majority...it's going to eliminate religious freedom...and therefore, Western civilization as we know it. However, in the United States, we also are not having children. There's abortion. There's contraception. There's the ideal of a one or two child family. But where is our immigration coming from? From Ecuador, from Mexico, from Cuba, from Guatemala. And these people are Christians. And so, I believe without being...you know, having hubris as an American, I believe that Christians in the United States are the ones who will be able to save not just Christianity, but Western civilization, if we maintain our fidelity to the scriptures, our fidelity to Christ, our fidelity to family life, and our fidelity to fertility and fruitfulness in marriage."
