Turning the big evangelical ship around

The fact that many evangelicals are wedded to a literalist reading of the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 has long been a major hermeneutical sore point for many theologians who are otherwise sympathetic with the traditionalist ethos of evangelicalism.

My current research grant comes from the BioLogos Foundation which was founded by, among others, Francis Collins, the current head of the NIH. This Atlantic Monthly article profiles an alternative theological culture that BioLogos and others are trying to grow within mainstream American evangelicalism.

For A General Education

my piece in the Gazette today.

Bill 60 - Post mortem

The aftermath of Quebec's April 7 election has included all manner of strange and quixotic excuses by the PQ as to the reasons for their resounding loss. Among the items of which we have seen the last is their Charter of Values law, which would have imposed an unconstitutional and illiberal combination of measures that would have been among one of the most extreme regimes of official 'laicite'. Peter Berger has written that this indicates the death of secularism here in Quebec. While I think that is an oversimplification, I agree with his assessment that secularism thrives on an anti-democratic impulse in culture and society. 

I will be discussing this and related matters on Monday in St. John's Newfoundland at St. Bonaventure College's annual Arrupe lecture.

Fr. William Stoeger, SJ 1943-2014

Bill Stoeger has passed away. His obituary is here.

I first met Bill via my doctoral thesis supervisor (James Pambrun, St. Paul / Ottawa) and Bill served as the external examiner for my thesis. Bill was an extraordinary man, combining the pastoral gifts he developed as a Jesuit with spectacular talent as an astrophysicist. His scientific training was conducted - in part - at Cambridge, where he worked with Stephen Hawking, among others.

Over the years, Bill and I exchanged a number of emails and met at several conferences, among which included a Catholic Theological Society of America meeting in 2003 and a Vatican Observatory / CTNS conference in 2003 at Castel Gandolfo. Bill was encouraging me to lead a project of contributions on Catholic interpretations of scientific anthropology (evolutionary psychology and so forth) despite the obstacles that lay in my path.

Bill was a generous scholar and priest. He was not given to any of the pretense that marks so many academics. He was enormously well respected by the scholars with whom he worked in the science-faith dialogue, being one of the first to call for a greater philosophical depth to the exchanges. He was also well known as one of the first to call for greater Catholic participation in the science-theology dialogue. Bill was a remarkable person. May he now enjoy the fullness of God's grace. R.I.P. Bill.

Just ordered Nagel's book (finally)

This book by Thomas Nagel, titled Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False. I will read this when spring officially makes its mark locally... which is set to happen after spring makes its mark calendrically  - sadly.

The reviews of it have been everywhere for quite some time. Love this review from Michael Chorost in the Chronicle in which he reports on the snarky comments of the strangely ideological Jerry Coyne and others before summing up the difficulties Nagel has uncovered c/o Joan Roughgarden, which seem to me spot on:

"I mean, these guys are impervious to contrary evidence and alternative formulations," she says. "What we see in evolution is stasis—conceptual stasis, in my view—where people are ardently defending their formulations from the early 70s."

And here is the ever great H. Allen Orr, in the NYRB on Nagel's book. Can't wait to read it myself.

Douthat on Gopnik on Hart

in today's NYT. Douthat is, as usual, on the mark... but it does make me want to read Hart's book!

Robert George on the hijab

... makes eminent sense to me

The Disingenuous Adventure of Professor Grayson

This post appears in the Feb. 6 edition of First Things online