Back to the Original Program

Catalyst #3: Their educational history and experiences have led emergents to disown the idea that when science and the Bible contradict that science must step aside. They refuse to give the Bible the "trump card." They remain committed to it, but with a different view as to what it actually is and how it works as a piece of literature to describe the workings of the cosmos. They are both left and right wing, committed to the Bible and open to new ideas.

Huzzah!
I believe that this is primarily aimed at the relatively small percentage of evangelicals who hold to a very strict reading of the creation account in the first few chapters of Genesis. Not being one of those myself, and in fact often feeling embarrassed on their behalf, I find this move good.

The Danger
Some of the dangers here are the same as in the earlier posts discussion about moving beyond "Scriptural inerrancy."

But a specific issue to consider in this case has to do with the relationship between science and faith. Forgive me for again going to C.S. Lewis, but he's good here..as he is with so many things!

Lewis argues that we should neither be too quick to proclaim victory when "the sciences" (everything from physics to biology to even archeology) seem to agree with a Biblical account or portrayal of the world. Nor should we be too intimidated when the sciences reach conclusions that appear dismissive of the Christian understanding of the world.

To borrow a phrase from a column I recently read, the general public squints at the world of "science" and considers it to be uniform mass of well-educated, white-coated people who with one voice reach firm conclusions about "the world of facts" and "how things are" that leaves no room for doubt or discussion.

In reality there is a very small slice of the body of scientific knowledge where this is true. The rest of it ebbs and flows like fall and spring fashions. Read journals from fifty years ago and you'll find any number of discoveries that appeared to be certain at the time that have since been disproved or nuanced or corrected or completely overhauled.

The Verdict
So if we're not going to give the Scriptures a literalists "trump card," let us also be slow to turn and give the world of the sciences that same card. And let us walk in humility and wisdom, winsomeness and thoughtfulness as we interact with the ancient wisdom of the Scriptures and twenty-first century understandings of how the world works.