Category Archives: Questions

How Should We Read Genesis 1?

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On this coming Thursday, February 8, at 8:00 pm, I’ll be giving a talk in Buffalo, NY on how best to read Genesis 1 in a contested cultural context.

The full title of the talk is: “In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth: Responsible Interpretation of Genesis 1 in Ancient and Contemporary Contexts.”

Many Christians today try to make this ancient text, which describes God’s creation of the cosmos, fit with modern assumptions. The main assumption that modern people bring to Genesis 1, which distorts what it is actually saying, is that this creation account must be coordinated with what we think science teaches us about the world.

For some, this means rejecting any aspects of modern science that don’t seem to match the text (the typical view of young earth creationists). For others, it means rejecting Genesis 1 because it clearly doesn’t match modern science (the view of many skeptics).

The trouble is that Genesis 1 is an ancient text that has no interest in addressing modern science at all. It has an entirely different focus.

In my talk, I will be taking participants on a journey of understanding, to see what this ancient text was saying to its original audience, and how its amazing message can impact us today (even in a modern scientific world).

The talk is being held as part of the Nickel City Forum, sponsored by Anglicans of Western New York. which hosts various events, including a series of talks typically given in pubs and open to the public.

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This talk will be held at The Place, on 229 Lexington Ave, Buffalo, New York 14222. For more information about the event, including how to register and get tickets, click here.

How Long Are the Days of Genesis 1?

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The Days of Genesis 1

I recently contributed to the revision of a BioLogos article on how we should interpret the “days” of Genesis 1.

“How Long Are the Days of Genesis 1?” is one of a number of articles on the BioLogos website that address Common Questions people have raised.

This article was originally drafted by Tremper Longman III and was edited with input from John H. Walton and myself.

You can read the article online here or (if you prefer) you can download a PDF here.

Genesis 1 and 2

A little under two weeks ago, I mentioned my previous BioLogos article (“What Is the Relationship between the Creation Accounts in Genesis 1 and 2?”), which had just been published.

You can download a PDF of that article here. Or you can read the article (along with comments from readers, and my subsequent responses) here.

Humans Created Mortal

Stay tuned for another online article in the journal Sapientia, where I will address the question of whether humans were mortal before the Fall.

 

 

Evangelical Theology—Challenges and Opportunities

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Many theologians, pastors, and lay people who have used the term “Evangelical” to describe themselves recently have become quite wary of the designation.

This is largely due to the way the media has hijacked the term to describe a certain segment of the American population who are typically identified with a narrow range of political and ideological views.

But “Evangelical” was not always a term with such a narrow meaning.

On October 20-21, 2017 (Friday evening, all-day Saturday) Northeastern Seminary will host a theology conference to explore the full-orbed meaning of “Evangelical.” This conference will be co-sponsored with the Canadian-American Theological Association.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Richard Mouw, Professor of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary (where he previously served as President for twenty years).

Dr. Mouw is the author of numerous books, including Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World (rev. ed. IVP, 2010), Called to the Life of the Mind: Some Advice for Evangelical Scholars (Eerdmans, 2014), and his autobiography, Adventures in Evangelical Civility: A Lifelong Quest for Common Ground (Brazos, 2016).

Dr. Mouw’s will give two lectures on the theme of the conference: Evangelical Theology: New Challenges, New Opportunities.

These lectures will explore the continuing value of the term “Evangelical” in the twenty-first century, while tracing the history of its meaning and usage over the past hundred years.

  1. A public lecture on Friday evening, October 20: New Challenges for Evangelical Theology
  2. The keynote lecture for the conference on Saturday, October 21: New Opportunities for Evangelical Theology

Besides Dr. Mouw’s lectures, we are expecting to have a wide range of papers related to the conference theme.

Our first such conference in 2013, on New Creation, had 65 papers presented; and our more recent conference in 2016, on Participation in God’s Mission, had 45 papers.

Interested scholars, pastors, and students are invited to propose papers for the conference. You may download the call for papers here. The deadline for proposals is June 1, 2017.

Once the conference program is decided, further information will be made available on the dedicated Northeastern Seminary website for the conference. The site will include online registration as we get closer to the conference.

Graduate students, post-docs, and pre-tenured faculty are invited to submit finished papers by September 15 for the Jack and Phyllis Middleton Memorial Award for Excellence in Bible and Theology.

In a follow-up post, I will describe something of the history and mission of the conference co-sponsor, the Canadian-American Theological Association, which began in 1990 (under the name the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association) specifically as an alternative to the narrowness of the way “Evangelical” was being used in the USA.