Re: [asa] Saving Darwin: What theological changes are required?

----- Original Message -----
From: "karl.w.giberson@enc.edu" <gibersok@gmail.com>
To: "George Murphy" <GMURPHY10@neo.rr.com>
Cc: "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com>; "Ted Davis"
<TDavis@messiah.edu>; "ASA list" <asa@calvin.edu>; "Stephen Matheson"
<smatheso@calvin.edu>; "Steve Martin" <steven.dale.martin@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: [asa] Saving Darwin: What theological changes are required?

>I am uncomfortable with the statement "Sin is a theological concept &
> has to do first with our relationship with God" if it detaches sin
> from our human nature and turns it into something "non-empirical."
> This seems dualistic to me. I think human rejection of God is
> motivated by our human natures, which evolved to be selfish. We can
> bring mystery on board and say things like "The crucial question,
> however, is
>> how they responded when they were given (somehow) an awareness of God and
>> God's will," but, if we take this route, we will find it hard to make
>> much use of what we know from science.
>
> Do I understand you to be saying that sin is only an issue in our
> relation to God, and not to the creation?

No, but the 1st Commandment comes 1st. LOve God with your whole being is
"the greatest commandment" & the 2d is to love your neighbor (which we
should take in a broad sense) as yourself. & that's not just a matter of
priorities. Genuine obedianece to the 2d flows from faithfulness to the
1st, as Luther makes clear in the Small Catechism. The 1st Commandment
means that we are to fear, love & trust in God above all things & then the
explanations of 2 through 10 all begin with "We are to fear and love God so
that ..." . In other words, genuine obedience to the commands not to
murder, commit adultery &c flow from putting God & God's will 1st, not
merely (e.g.) from fear of going to prison.

Paul makes the same point in Romans 1 where the basic sin of idolatry,
worshipping the creature rather than the creature, eventuates in all the
other sins that he goes on to list.

In turn, we can as Christians see the pervasive human failures to love other
people & to care for creation as outgrowths & symptoms of the failure to
fear, love & trust in the true God. In that sense sin has empirical
consequences. But psychologists, sociologists &c who study human behavior
from non-religious standpoints will of course see things differently, & may
speak of our destructive attitudes & behaviors toward the rest of creation
without any reference to God. & to some extent what they say may be quite
correct & clinically helpful.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
 

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue Jun 10 08:21:08 2008