In the latest episode of Christ the Center, we explore the fascinating intersection of science, faith, and philosophy through the life and contributions of Robert Boyle, the seventeenth-century chemist often dubbed the father of modern chemistry. Our guest, Dr. Edward B. Davis, Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at Messiah University, shares his extensive knowledge on Boyle’s experiments, the development of Boyle’s Law, and the broader implications of Boyle’s work on the relationship between emerging scientific disciplines and religious thought. We also delve into the historical context of Boyle’s era, his influence on the mechanical philosophy, and how his devout Anglican faith shaped his understanding of the natural world. Listen as we explore the complex relationship of how scientific inquiry and religious belief have related throughout history.

Links

• Edward B. Davis CV
• Edward B. Davis on ResearchGate
• Dr. Davis’ article, “Robert Boyle, the Bible, and Natural Philosophy“

Chapters

• 00:00:07 Introduction
• 00:02:00 Christianity and History of Science
• 00:12:45 The Philosophical and Methodological Awareness of Scientists
• 00:18:52 Gaining Humility through Historical Perspective
• 00:25:02 Robert Boyle in Historical Context
• 00:37:28 Boyle’s Scientific Pursuits
• 00:41:57 Robert Boyle and James Ussher
• 00:44:03 Natural Philosophy
• 00:51:33 Boyle’s Views Contrasted with Deism
• 00:54:24 Boyle’s Contributions
• 00:59:13 Dr. Davis’ Scholarship on Boyle
• 01:03:41 Researching Boyle
• 01:08:13 Reading Dr. Davis’ articles
• 01:10:21 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Edward B. Davis

In 1904, the same year Herman Bavinck published Christian Worldview, Bavinck published a book titled Christelijke wetenschap (Christian Science) in which he commented on a movement to “build science . . . on the foundation of the Christian faith.” Cory Brock joins us to speak about this book and Bavinck’s views on the subject.

Dr. Cory C. Brock is assistant minister of St. Columba’s Free Church and part-time lecturer in theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary. He is the author of Orthodox yet Modern: Herman Bavinck’s Use of Friedrich Schleiermacher and co-author of Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 06:22 A Different Type of “Christian Science”
• 15:38 The Antithesis and Scientific Presuppositions
• 19:42 The Trinity and Creation
• 23:58 The Image of God and the Hope of Christian Science
• 31:12 Theology as Queen and Servant of Science
• 38:40 Science in the New Heavens and New Earth
• 43:14 Sin, Knowledge, and the Christian University
• 49:01 Non-Christians and Science
• 59:03 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Cory Brock, Ryan Noha

Dr. Vern Poythress speaks about the hermeneutical issues of interpreting Genesis 1–3 and how biblical interpretation relates to contemporary scientific study.

Dr. Poythress is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Biblical Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary and the author of Interpreting Eden: A Guide to Faithfully Understanding and Reading Genesis 1–3 (Crossway). The publisher writes:

Christians have long discussed and debated the first three chapters of the Bible. How we interpret this crucial section of Scripture has massive implications for how we understand the rest of God’s Word and even history itself. In this important volume, biblical scholar Vern Poythress combines careful exegesis with theological acumen to illuminate the significance of Genesis 1–3. In doing so, he demonstrates the sound interpretive principles that lead to true understanding of the biblical text, while also exploring complex topics such as the nature of time, the proper role of science, interpretive literalism, and more.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Glen Clary, Jim Cassidy, Vern Poythress

Dr. Ransom Poythress has written Richard Dawkins in P&R Publishing’s Great Thinkers series. Poythress speaks about Richard Dawkins’s system of thought. Since the early 2000s, Dawkins has been an outspoken advocate of what has been termed the New Atheism. Poythress discusses Dawkins’s beliefs and advocates methods for approaching those who believe likewise. Dr. Poythress is assistant professor of biology at Houghton College in Houghton, New York.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington, Ransom Poythress

In March Intervarsity Press plans to release a book by John Walton with a contribution from N. T. Wright titled, The Lost World of Adam and Eve. Wright’s excursus follows Walton’s chapter titled, “Paul’s Use of Adam Is More Interested in the Effect of Sin on the Cosmos Than in the Effect of Sin on Humanity and Has Nothing to Say About Human Origins.” Wright’s piece is called, “Excursus on Paul’s Use of Adam.” However, from the Intervarsity website it’s difficult to tell if Wright wrote only the Excursus or chapter nineteen as well. Nevertheless, as a foretaste of what is to come next month I want to briefly review chapter two in Wright’s book of collected essays, Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues (New York, NY: Harper One, 2014). Wright begins chapter two, “Do We Need a Historical Adam?,” by observing two common theological drivers in today’s discussion. The first is the presupposition that if people let go of an historical Adam, “they are letting go of the authority of Scripture” (26–27). Wright contends that this is a sociocultural bugaboo which works in tandem with an inaccurate view of how biblical authority actually functions. In other words, if you read Wright as critiquing what is described as “the American Inerrancy Tradition” (or the AIC, cf. Five Views of Inerrancy, Zondervan, 2013) coupled with Dispensationalism,” Wright’s favorite American target, then you have identified the people to whom he is referring. The second theological driver is a favorite of Wright. It is his unceasing refrain that the Bible is not about how we get saved (27). For Wright, this is a particularly important issue for Reformed theologians who view Adam as a federal head. However, according to Wright, by reading Paul as saying that we are either in Adam condemned or in Christ and saved is to misread the Biblical text or, at the very least, to read too narrowly. Having dismissed these theological hang-ups Wright’s own construction concerning the historical Adam goes something like this. Adam’s sin meant not only that he died but that he no longer reigned over the world (34). To put it tersely, Adam’s death meant that he had lost God’s image, which when translated is to say that he had lost his vocation or calling in the world. Thus, God’s plan for kingdom expansion had been derailed. God no longer had a priestly vice-regent. However, in Jesus God’s plan was set right again. Jesus fulfilled his vocation and is enthroned as the reigning king. He is now where the last Adam was supposed to be (35). So, what does this have to do with an historical Adam? Well, according to Wright, Israel too is in Adam and Israel bears the solution to the problem of God’s derailed kingdom. To be specific, the link between Israel and the historical Adam is found in God’s choosing of Israel. [Now, pay attention, because here is the move.] In the same way that God chose Israel from among the nations to engage in a demanding vocation, which they failed to fulfill, perhaps, speculates Wright, in like manner God chose Adam and Eve from among the early hominids to represent the whole human race in order to take God’s kingdom forward into the world. Here is Wright’s quote:

And it leads to my proposal: that just as God chose Israel from the rest of humankind for a special, strange, demanding vocation, so perhaps what Genesis is telling us is that God chose one pair from the rest of early hominids for a special, strange, demanding vocation. This pair (call them Adam and Eve if you like) were to be representatives of the whole human race, the ones in whom God’s purpose to make the whole world a place of delight and joy and order, eventually colonizing the whole creation, was to be taken forward. God the creator put into their hands the fragile task of being image bearers. If they fail, they will bring the whole purpose for the wider creation, including all the nonchosen hominids, down with them. They are supposed to be the life bringers, and if they fail in their task the death that is already endemic in the world as it is will engulf them as well. (emphasis his, 37–38)

Well, what can we say to Professor Wright? Perhaps we might suggest what he already knows; his construction is unique and wholly speculative. And perhaps we might even send Professor Wright to our brother in the Lord, Benjamin B. Warfield. Now, this brother of ours, like Wright, surely had a concern for science. Who would deny it? But listen to what he says about the unity of the human race. He wrote,

The assertion of the unity of the human race is imbedded in the very structure of the Biblical narrative. The Biblical account of the origin of man (Genesis 1:26–28) is an account of his origination in a single pair, who constituted humanity in its germ, and from whose fruitfulness and multiplication all the earth has been replenished. Therefore the first man was called Adam, Man, and the first woman, Eve, “because she was the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). (emphasis mine, “On the Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race,” quoted from Biblical and Theological Studies [P&R, 1968, p. 259])

And again,

[It] would be truer to say that the whole doctrinal structure of the Bible account of redemption is founded on its assumption that the race of man is one organic whole, and may be dealt with as such. It is because all are one in Adam that in the matter of sin there is no difference…. The unity of the old man in Adam is the postulate of the unity of the new man in Christ. (261)

Yes, we need an historical Adam. But we need more than an Adam who was historical. We, like Warfield before us, need to affirm the authority of Scripture by taking our stand on what it says about the unity of the human race in Adam that we might also take seriously what it says about the One Man, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Vern S. Poythress, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA, speaks about his new book, Chance and the Sovereignty of God: A God-Centered Approach to Probability and Random Events (Crossway). The fifth in a series of “God-Centered Approaches,” Chance and the Sovereignty of God explores the mathematics of probability as well as the relationship of God’s sovereignty to chance events. Today, Dr. Poythress explains how Christians can approach chance in practical events as well as in academic study, whether scientific or mathematical. Dr. Poythress is the author of a number of books, including Redeeming Science, In the Beginning Was the Word, Redeeming Sociology, and Logic. He has also spoken on Christ the Center episodes 52, 98, 188, and 235, and on Philosophy for Theologians episode 20.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint, Jeff Waddington, Vern Poythress

Michael Burdett has a great review of Alain de Botton’s “School of Life” and introduction to the growing movement known as “transhumanism” in The Marginalia Review of Books. Transhumanism is a movement that seeks to overcome the limitations of the present human condition. Primarily through scientific and technological advances, proponents of transhumanism believe they may transcend the present human condition and perhaps achieve immortality. Transhumanism shares much with its older cousin, secular humanism. Burdett notes that both espouse,

the central values of reason and science, human progress, and the value of our present life. Both focus on the flourishing of humanity and the improvement of the human condition through rational and scientific thinking. But transhumanism then takes these shared humanist ideals and advocates the enhancement of the human species through biotechnology and information technology, moving beyond the utilization of these technologies for therapeutic purposes alone.

In other words, transhumanism is akin to a sci-fi version of the Babel narrative in Genesis 11. Though no less a desire to “make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4), it may be friendlier than other forms of human autonomy. As a sort of religious belief in its own right, critics have noted that transhumanism may be a kinder, gentler form of atheism. Atheism 2.0, exemplified by figures such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris was harsh and often vitriolic toward all forms of religious belief. But transhumanism as the next iteration of atheism is open to spiritual questions of transcendence, transformation, and even glorification, though in a qualified sense. As a theologian, apologist, and technophile, this movement connects several of my interests. Many years ago, I was introduced to transhumanism through the research and writings of Ray Kurzweil, a leading futurist. Kurzweil has worked for decades in the field of natural language processing and artificial intelligence. He has identified the exponential rate of increase in machine intelligence and foresees a future “singularity” in which the rate of increase will eventually increase so rapidly, it will seem instantaneous (think Terminator 2). It may sound far-fetched, but Kurzweil’s beliefs are plausible enough and his predictions accurate enough to fuel this burgeoning movement. There are plenty of websites, a magazine, and documentaries (e.g. Transcendent Man and Plug and Pray) featuring aspects of the transhumanist movement. It’s a fascinating topic that I suspect we may address in a future episode of Christ the Center.

Jared Oliphint and Camden Bucey speak about a number of topics in today’s open discussion, but the discussion gravitated toward theologizing in today’s connected culture. With the proliferation of social media, particularly Twitter, theology seems to be growing and spreading in new ways. Jared and Camden speak about these changing dynamics—particularly the role of polemics.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Oliphint

Christ the Center is pleased to welcome Dr. Vern Poythress back to the program to discuss his latest book Redeeming Sociology. The title alone may leave some people wondering why it was written by a professor of New Testament interpretation. Yet those familiar with Dr. Poythress’ work will quickly come to realize how he has thoroughly applied his God-centered Trinitarian approach to the subject of human relationships. From the publisher:

Redeeming Sociology advocates a biblically informed model for human relationships—relationships rooted in the Trinitarian character of God, his governance of the world, and his redemption accomplished in Christ. Poythress examines how the breaking of relationships through sin leads to strife, murder, and oppression among human beings and sets cultures against one another. And he shows how these broken relationships are restored through the outworking of redemption in Christ. Though typical sociological models for interpersonal relationships may offer some valuable insights, they are handicapped by a fundamental misunderstanding of humanity. The biblical model that Poythress presents correctly diagnoses the problem of human relationships, so it can likewise prescribe a biblical solution that infuses new meaning and power into how we relate to others made in the image of God.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington, Nick Batzig, Vern Poythress

post image from washingtonydc

Participants: Camden Bucey, David Murray, Michael DeWalt, Nick Batzig

Links

• Bioethics: New Questions to New Technologies by David VanDrunen
• Office Hours, a podcast of Westminster Seminary California

episode graphic from Frabuleuse

Participants: Camden Bucey, David VanDrunen, Jeff Waddington, Jim Cassidy, Nick Batzig

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington, Nick Batzig, Vern Poythress

Science and faith are often pitted against each other. Many have felt they must make a choice between either being a person of science or a person of faith. Dr. Vern Poythress, Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary and the author of Redeeming Science, joins the panel on Christ the Center to discuss the relationship between Christianity and science. He argues that not only is science compatible with Christianity but that the Triune God of the Bible is required in order for the very possibility of science to exist. Listen to this broad-ranging discussion that touches upon science, mathematics, the creation days, and a Christian approach to education.
Archive.org

Panel

• Vern Poythress
• James Dolezal
• Jim Cassidy
• Nick Batzig
• Camden Bucey

Bibliography

Participants: James Dolezal, Jim Cassidy, Nick Batzig, Vern Poythress