By way of trying to provoke some fresh discussion -
While there are some differences which aren't important for the
present discussion (i.e., concerning the OT Apocrypha), all Christians
accept (or are supposed to accept!) the well-known 66 books of
protestant Bibles as authoritative canonical scripture. However,
different parts of the church, and different individuals, see different
parts of the canon as central to Christian faith and life, and tend to
read the rest of the Bible through the lens of those central parts.
They have, as it's sometimes said, a "canon within the canon" (CIC).
E.g., Lutherans have traditionally given a central place to Romans and
Galatians, while Roman Catholics have emphasized Matthew. Other parts
of the church have given some priority to other books. These are
_unofficial_ CICs - no RC would say that only Matthew is
authoritative. OTOH, no one with any theological sense is going to
argue seriously that Jude is as important as the Gospel of John.
As these examples indicate, a Christian's CIC pretty much has to
be from the NT simply because of the centrality of Christ. Isaiah or
Exodus (as, e.g., for liberation theologians) may be strongly
emphasized, but you just can't get a Christian theology from the OT
alone. While the OT is important, Christians read it in the light of
the NT, not the other way around. We may say that while different parts
of the church sharpen the focus further, the NT is our CIC.
In view of this, a great deal of discussion of creation and of
science-theology relationships in general, is rather strange. One would
get the impression from much of the discussion of creation & evolution
&c that Genesis is the CIC of fundamentalism and much of
Evangelicalism. Of course that is not the case when other topics are
being considered, but when this one comes on stage, Genesis is pushed to
the forefront.
Might it not be a good idea to try to develop some understanding
of issues related to creation and evolution (including theological
anthropology and providence) from the NT? I am certainly not suggesting
that we drop Genesis (or for that matter Psalms or Isaiah or the rest of
the OT) in developing a full understanding of these issues. But it
would be good discipline for us to put a moratorium on debates about
Genesis 1-11 & focus on relevant NT texts (reflecting, of course, on
related OT passages when necessary for interpretation). For starters I
would suggest:
John 1:1-18
Romans 4 & 5:6-21
I Corinthians 8:6
Ephesians 1 & 4:1-16
Philippians 2:1-11
Colossians 1:15-20
Hebrews 2:5-18
The list is by no means exhaustive.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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