Peter Enns
I was interviewed today by Jared Byas on some of my thoughts on teaching kids the Gospel. Read more
I was interviewed today by Jared Byas on some of my thoughts on teaching kids the Gospel. Read more
We continue today with three more recurring mistakes in the Adam/evolution discussion. Both Paul and the writer of Genesis thought Adam was a real person, the first man. Denying the historicity of Adam means you think you know better than the biblical writers. As with the issues we looked at in my last post, phasing things this way has some rhetorical punch, but it simply sidesteps a fundamental interpretive challenge all of us need to address on one level or... Read more
Over the past two weeks or so, there has been quite a bit of blog discussion over the question of Adam in light of evolution. I have kept up with various websites and other postings—not to mention comments on my own website. Opinions vary, of course, and the Internet can be a good place to air one’s views and have a rousing back and forth debate. Nothing at all wrong with that. But, as I began reading editorials and comments,... Read more
Today I want to list (not discuss) some of the factors that have to be accounted for in building a compelling “model” of Adam in the Bible. If you want more details, you can either invite me to your house for a VERY expensive evening or you can wait for my book to come out. The slide below reproduces the slide in my last post but in chart form. The three contexts we looked at are down the left column with some (by... Read more
EerdWord, the blog of Eerdmans Publishing Co., has posted a brief segment from my upcoming Ecclesiastes commentary (due out this month). In this segment I talk about reading a challenging book like Ecclesiastes from a Christian point of view. Among other things, I mention the notion of a “Christotelic” approach and “first and second readings.” Read more
In my last post, we looked at some options for how to bring Adam and evolution into conversation. Today, we begin to look at the factors that have to be addressed when building a “model.” A model is a way of “putting the pieces” together that accounts for as many pieces of the puzzle in as compelling a way as possible. So, when discussing Adam today, a pretty big “piece” is evolution. Talking about Adam in a way that ignores... Read more
Last week I spoke to a gathering of pastors from the NY Metro presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of America on the problem of evolution and Adam. This topic is a particularly pressing problem for this denomination, since the Westminster Confession of Faith (their doctrinal standard written around 1650) presumes, understandably, that Adam was the first human, created specially by God without any preceding evolutionary process. I thought I’d summarize what I said to these pastors. My aim was not to force upon... Read more
My point: Belligerence in theological discussions is a reaction to a deep fear—typically unperceived—that one’s metanarrative is under threat. Let me put that in English: People fight about their views of God because they are afraid of the consequences of being wrong. Being wrong about God is fearful because it destabilizes their way of looking at the universe and their place in it. People tend to fight when frightened this way. Let me put that in Yoda: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to... Read more
About a year ago, I posted on my old website a lecture I gave at Asuza Pacific University on the role of doubt in the Christian life. Below is a greatly abbreviated version (half the length) of that lecture that cleans up some of the “oral” feel of the original lecture. Based on feedback I’ve received over the past year, I thought reposting it in this form would be of benefit to some. The Benefit of Doubt Doubting one’s faith in God... Read more
Today, in my final post in this series, we will look at three more problematic assertions in Al Mohler’s NPR interview. As I mentioned in my last post, my responses are sketches, not complete–although I do get in much more detail in The Evolution of Adam. My last post also supplies links to the audio and transcript of the NPR interview, along with a slightly edited version of the manuscript. 3. Since evolution undermines the gospel, it should be rejected.... Read more
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