RE: OUCH

by way of grayt@calvin.edu (tdavis@mcis.messiah.edu)
Wed, 21 Feb 1996 16:20:00 -0400

In response to a request for definitions of Progressive
Creationism (PC): For a classic statement, see Bernard Ramm,
*The Christian View of Science and Scripture* (1954), passim, but
esp. pp. 76-79 in my edition (not all are paginated the same);
or chap III, sec IV, parts B3 and C.

To summarize it, the earth is old and God's creative acts are
progressive, culiminating in humans; but some amount of
evolution may well have happened. The "day-age" view is usually
understood as a specific variety of PC, although it is true
that some of its adherents were evolutionists; e.g., James
Dwight Dana in the 19th century. Another variety would hold
as Augustine did that the days in the hexameron are revelatory
days, not periods of time in a literal or even non-literal sense.
That is, God revealed the creation events through the vehicle of
a story of six days, but the actual creation was completed as a
single act that unfolded in time through the actualization of
potentialities placed in the creation at the beginning.

.......................................................................

Ted Davis
Assoc Prof of Science and History
Messiah College
Grantham, PA 17027
717-766-2511, ext 6840
tdavis@mcis.messiah.edu