Knowing Creation: Perspectives from Theology, Philosophy, and Science

Evangelical Quarterly

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The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, 2023

This is the first in a series of articles investigating major aspects of Catholic fundamental theology and their significance for the doctrine of Creation. In this first article, we will briefly examine the nature of Divine Revelation and our God-given response to it, the supernatural virtue of faith. This will lead to a consideration of the science of sacred theology, which rests on faith, and how it relates to other (especially the natural) sciences. By doing so, we will begin to understand how Creation is a properly theological topic, and that therefore sacred theology can and ought to judge the natural sciences when they attempt to appropriate this fundamental subject.

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Tangaza University College, 2005

This essay is an attempt to understand the scientific evidence that organic evolution is a fact as pointed out by Pope John Paul II in his recent statement in (1996). It is an opportunity for me to see how religious thought about creation and evolution is presently conceived; given the past traditional understanding that species were created and fixed once and for all in God’s creative activity, which presupposed that evolution could not take place. In the past organic evolution had made very little impression upon many areas of human knowledge, and more so in theology. But presently there is attention of many theologians from different religious faiths that has increased considerably on the question of the origins of the universe and its dynamism to the future. The fact of organic evolution is apparently becoming clearer with the evidence varying from one discipline of knowledge to the other. The organic evolution embraces a principle of novelty at work, which integrates its past into the present, and is directed to the future. Following this awareness, then, there is a profound link and unity between creation as a reality and evolution as a reality, that both are open to the future dimensions of beings. And this is the link and unity I focus on in this essay. In chapter one therefore, I start by defining the essential terms ‘Creation’ and ‘Creationism’ that will carry us throughout in this work, as we look how creation is envisioned from the Christian theological context. In doing this, I focus first of all on the Old Testament, to see what the biblical narratives on creation say, particularly (Gen 1-2). Then, what follows is the way creation was perceived in the Old Testament Prophetic and Wisdom literature. I conclude this chapter by looking at the Christian understanding of creation particularly in the New Testament, which has handed over a strong biblical traditional inheritance to the present Christian theological vision of creation. My aim in this chapter is not to criticise or interpret anything, but to see how this notion of creation emerged in the general Christian context. In chapter two, my attention goes on the scientific understanding about creation. I start by defining the essential scientific terms of ‘Evolutionism’ and ‘Scientific Creationism’. I then look at the notion of microevolution and macroevolution in which scientific evolutionists argue that evolution takes place or occurs along these lines of change. From that we see how evolution that is quite evidenced in these dimensions of microevolution and macroevolution is becoming part and parcel in the religious/theological circles and faiths. My focus here is on how believers and those who happen to be both believers and scientists, approach this idea of creation as God’s exclusive activity. Because, presently, creation is quite inseparable with the way God’s creative activity is perceived as continuous in evolution. And this brings us to the way the integrity of God’s creation ought to be, as human beings understand it presently, both from religious and scientific points of view. In the last chapter, I look at how human beings, presently, understand themselves as the summit of God’s creation, which is basically from the Christian perspective. This leads us to the contrasting message that is powerfully coming from ecological theology with the argument against human dominance and control in the entire creation of God as experienced in the modern world. That is, the issue of ‘Anthropic Principle’ that finds its support more clearly in the first account of creation narrative (Gen 1:28-30). This entire theological perception is summed up by the general theological outlook of how we can perceive God from both religious/theological and scientific points of view without unnecessary antagonistic relations. Because, our God as a God of mutual relations in the Trinity is our very God in an evolving universe. Finally, I give a short summary and some concluding remarks. This is followed by a bibliographical reference indicating my sources of research on this essay.

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Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 2022

In contrast to common practice, which separates science and theology, this article takes the doctrine of creation as the key to map out fruitful interactions between science and theology. In particular, it asks how theologians-and the wider church-can benefit from science and what scientists can learn from theology for their professional work. Such an integrated view enables us to understand science as a gift to the church and also to consciously take advantage of theological resources in scientific practice. Although this article mainly uses creation as the lens through which to address these questions, it also hints at contributions which the doctrines of sin and redemption offer.

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The Journal of The Math3ma Institute, 2022

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Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, 2012

Describes the historical implications of the idea of creation for the comprehensibility of the world and the possibility of healing and restoration (based on research done for the first chapter of Creation and the History of Science).

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2015

Evolutionary creation offers a conservative Christian approach to evolution. It explores biblical faith and evolutionary science through a Two Divine Books model and proposes a complementary relationship between Scripture and science. The Book of God’s Words discloses the spiritual character of the world, while the Book of God’s Works reveals the divine creative process. This view of origins recognizes that the Bible features an ancient conceptualization of nature, and consequently rejects concordism (or scientific concordism). It understands bibli-cal revelation in the light of the Incarnation and suggests that Scripture was ac-commodated for an ancient Near Eastern mindset. Evolutionary creation holds a traditional notion of natural revelation. The reflection of intelligent design extends to the process of evolution, rejecting the God-of-the-gaps creative method, and declaring the faithfulness of the Creator’s evolutionary mechanisms. Evolutionary creation claims that the Father, ...

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Zygon?, 1998

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