Re: [asa] McGrath, Torrance, and Monistic View

I've read & reviewed the 3 volumes of McGrath's _A Scientific Theology_ for _Trinity Seminary Review_ as well as other works of his & have not picked up on a "monism," at least in a sense I recognize (which is basically what Phil describes).

I suppose that anybody who accepts the traditional concept of divine omnipotence, the idea that God is the ultimate cause of everything that happens, might be called a "monist," but that would be a very unconventional & confusing use of the word. What distinguishes Christian belief in creation from various forms of emanationism which are sometimes confused with it is the claim that God causes to exist something which is not God.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: philtill@aol.com
  To: dopderbeck@gmail.com ; asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 4:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] McGrath, Torrance, and Monistic View

  David,
  I spent a week sitting in a TV studio as part of McGrath's audience while he taped a seminar on science and Christianity. During the entire seminar I never picked up that McGrath was anything other than an orthodox Anglican evangelical. I never picked up that he held to any monist ideas of God. Perhaps this is someone's interpretation of McGrath's beliefs, rather than McGrath's own interpretation of them.

  "Monism" usually means that belief that only One entity fundamentally exists, and that all the varied things we experience are really just manifestations of that One. Monistic faiths include Pantheism (incl. Hinduism), which asserts that everything is really God in the final analysis, and atheism, which asserts that everything is really non-God in the final analysis. Non-monistic faiths include Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, because they assert that God both exists and **created** things, and that this creating brought into existence things that stand as **other** than Himself. That is, there is a Creator/creation distinction in non-monist faiths, and so God is not the only thing that exists. It has been claimed that the good vs. evil distinction cannot exist in monism, since good is defined by the creator and non-good can only be a property of beings that are not the creator. Hence, good and e vil ultimately just illusions in monist belief systems like Hinduism or atheism. I have a hard time believing McGrath is really monist.

  He seemed like a very nice person, and you might get to speak with him if you give him a call. He is not teaching right now because he won a Templeton fellowship to focus on research regarding the interface between science and Christianity, and he was very excited about that. He might be willing to talk with you if you introduce yourself stating your credentials and your interests.

  best,
  Phil

   
  -----Original Message-----
  From: dopderbeck@gmail.com
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 3:38 PM
  Subject: [asa] McGrath, Torrance, and Monistic View

  I met someone today who teaches at Oxford with Alister McGrath. He mentioned that McGrath draws heavily on Barth and on Torrance, and described McGrath as "monistic," a position with which he strongly disagreed. He also mentioned that he had been on the board of the Templeton Foundation when it was first formed. What is the "monistic" position to which he referred, and what are the alternatives?

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Received on Sun Oct 15 17:51:46 2006