Tom Oord: Evil and Big Questions, Like Evolution

Tom Oord:

As I prepared for my presentation, I realized that engaging intellectually challenging questions requires courage and humility. Too often, Christians shrink from asking the hard questions and dealing with the realities of their possible answers. So they need the Spirit and community of faith to in-courage them. But Christians can be sometimes tempted to think their own particular answers are obviously the correct ones. So they need the humility exemplified best in Christ.

Mature Christians are humble and courageous enough to allow diverse opinions on how best to answer life’s most challenging questions. Smart and loving Christians can responsibly disagree. We must learn to live well amidst our different Christian perspectives.

In my presentation, I laid out several Christian responses to issues of evil and evolution. I talked about advantages and disadvantages of each, because I respect each. I also proposed my own answer, one I find most attractive given all of the various factors in this complex set of questions. My answer relies upon a view I call Essential Kenosis. (Those interested in knowing more about Essential Kenosis can read other blogs I’ve written or several of my published books. My forthcoming book, The Uncontrolling Love of God, explains Essential Kenosis more fully than any I’ve written previously.)

After offering my own proposals about how to address evil and evolution from a Christian perspective, I reminded my audience that I don’t have all of life’s answers. Like everyone else, I see through a darkened glass, to use the Apostle Paul’s analogy (1 Cor. 13). Despite only knowing in part, however, I feel called to seek answers that I find most plausible in light of God’s love and life’s most challenging questions.

In the midst of difficult days in my personal life and in our world more broadly, I pray that we are both courageous and humble. Above all, I pray that we put on love, which can bind us together in unity, despite our real and genuine differences (Col. 3:14).