Tag Archives: worldview

The Very Best Christian Analysis of ISIS (By Brian Stiller)

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Brian Stiller (a Canadian) has been Global Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) for the past four years. In this capacity he has visited dozens of countries (including Somalia, Japan, Nepal, Iraq, Egypt, South Sudan) to witness and liaise with Christian groups, especially those suffering persecution.

He has recently edited, along with other scholars, a volume entitled Evangelicals Around the World: A Global Handbook for the 21st Century (Thomas Nelson, 2015).

Along the way Stiller has gained a deep knowledge of the nature and problem of extremist Islam.

His four-part analysis of ISIS is the best and clearest I have found, and should be helpful to anyone wanting to understand the roots, development, character, and goals of this movement. It is particularly helpful in being informative yet non-ideological, while acknowledging the genuine danger of this form of extremist religion.

Stiller’s analysis originated as four “Dispatches from the Global Village” sent as emails to interested persons, which are now compiled into one succinct, yet comprehensive, article. The four parts are:

ISIS Part I: What it is

ISIS PART II: Four central questions

ISIS PART III: Six underlying realities; seven stages in conquest

ISIS PART IV: A Christian response

This is well-worth reading by anyone who wants to be informed on the subject.

 

Michael Gorman to Give Keynote Lecture at Northeastern Seminary Theology Conference

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Northeastern Seminary will be hosting its second Theology Conference on Saturday, March 19, 2016 (the first was held in October 2013 on the theme of New Creation).

The topic for 2016 is Participation in God’s Mission, and the plenary speaker will be Dr. Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore, MD.

Well-known for his writings on Pauline theology and ethics, Dr. Gorman will be speaking on the shaping of the cruciform Christian life through participation in God’s mission, a theme that blends spirituality and ethics with mission.

Dr. Gorman will present a public lecture for a general audience (on the apostle Paul) on the Friday evening before the conference; then he will give the keynote lecture (on the Gospel of John) for the conference on Saturday morning. Both lectures will be based on his current sabbatical research, for which he was awarded a Henry Luce III Fellowship.

Besides Dr. Gorman’s keynote address, the conference will feature concurrent sessions with papers on topics related to the conference theme. Many paper proposals were submitted before Christmas and they are continuing to come in. The deadline for receiving proposals is currently January 4, but there is a rumor it might be extended by a week. But those interested should still get their proposals in ASAP.

The Call for Papers can be accessed here, and further information about the conference will be posted on the Northeastern Seminary website and Facebook page.

This event is held in partnership with the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association (CETA).

For those interested, you can check out Dr. Gorman’s books here and you can access his blog (called Cross Talk) here.

Why Christians Don’t Need to Be Threatened by Evolution

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GENESIS RECAST Conference

For too long Christians in North America have thought the Bible was in conflict with biological evolution. Yet many orthodox Christian theologians of the nineteenth century (including Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield) saw no conflict in principle.

The Manufactured “War” between Science and Religion

This famous “war” of science and religion (of which the creation-evolution battle is the most prominent example) is a relatively recent invention, manufactured from the atheist side by John William Draper (History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science, 1874) and by Andrew Dickson White (A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 1896), and on the Christian side by fundamentalists who misread the Genesis creation accounts as scientific.

But this is a serious genre mistake. Many atheists treat “science” as a full-fledged worldview that claims to tell us that there is nothing to reality but the natural world and that the scientific method gives us all the valid knowledge there is. Likewise many Christians treat the Bible as a science textbook, when the point of creation accounts in the ancient world (of which Israel was a part) is to explain the meaning of life and how we are to live.

Of course, the issues are a bit more complex than that. But to find out more you will need to attend an important conference that is coming to the Buffalo, NY area on September 18-19, 2015.

Genesis Recast—The War with Science Is Over

This is the provocative name of the conference, which will headline John Walton, Old Testament professor from Wheaton College, on how the read the Genesis creation accounts. His orthodox Christian faith in connection with his expertise in the Bible and the ancient Near East admirably equips him to guide us in how the interpret the Genesis creation accounts in line with their original intent.

Of course, we need to go well beyond a declaration of “peace” between the Bible and science.

The Positive Role of a Biblical View of Creation

The biblical view of creation claims that the cosmos is “very good” (Gen 1:31) and is imbued with God’s wisdom and order (Prov 3:19-20). Indeed, the wisdom literature of the Bible encourages us to understand the world, in which God’s wisdom is embedded, that we might live better in it.

Furthermore, God’s creation of humanity in his own image, with the task to rule the earth (Gen 1:26-28) and tend the garden of creation (Gen 2:15), implies an exalted role for human beings, which includes the possibility of science. As stewards of earthly life, we are commissioned with a vocation that encompasses (but is not limited to) the scientific understanding of the world in which we live.

Not only can the world be studied scientifically, but a biblical view of God’s good creation suggests that human knowledge of the world (while not infallible) is possible and (when proper testing is in place) is reliable and trustworthy.

So far from being threatened by evolution, Christians who embrace a biblical understanding of creation may see the hand of God in the deep time of the cosmos and the complex processes of biological evolution. In fact, we may be in awe of the amazing creativity of this great God of ours.

Living with Unanswered Questions

Does this mean that we’ve solved all problems of how theology and the Bible relate to what we are learning about the cosmos and the evolution of life on this planet? By no means. I myself am working on these issues and have lots of questions. But whoever said that we would have all the answers, especially within our lifetime?

Expecting all the answers now is a decidedly modern form of hubris.

Instead, Christians need to learn the virtue of patience, and to take a long view of things. If we trust in the God of creation, revealed supremely in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, we can learn to live with the unanswered questions we have—indeed, to love the questions, as Rilke suggested, until that day when we live into the answers.

More Information on the Genesis Recast Conference

While John Walton is the keynote speaker for the Buffalo conference, there are other speakers, addressing issues relating to the New Testament, genetics, and implications for the church. You can find details about the other speakers on the conference website, as well as in my previous post on the subject.

Registration is so cheap as to be ridiculous. If you live within driving distance, there is no excuse not to go, since a conference of this caliber won’t come this way again in a long while.

I hope to see you there!

If you need flyers (4×6) or posters (13×19) for your church or organization, let the conference organizer know [iyouthguy@gmail.com], and he will send them to you.