A Review of Matthew Levering, Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures, and the Wise and Good Creator In many ways, the doctrine of creation in modern theology has been a doctrine in flux. Since the late eighteenth century, it has commonly been presupposed that legitimate theological knowledge extends only so far as empirical experience can…

When we ask what the “groaning of creation” in Romans 8:19-22 means, many today expect an answer addressing environmentalism and creation-care. The desire to relate this passage to such contemporary discussions is certainly a good one. But first we need to place this passage in its original context to be sure of its own meaning….

And we know that all the creation together groans and together suffers birth pangs up to the present moment. –Romans 8:22 The creation is giving birth to us. She is our mother. Paul sets this remarkable image before the eyes of the Roman Christians. Or, better stated, he seeks to open their ears to the…

In Romans 8:19-22, Paul lifts the gaze of his readers from their present circumstances to look around at an entire creation that shares in their suffering and hope and to look forward to the incomparable glory that awaits. Other than John 1:14 (“the Word became flesh”), this text is perhaps the most significant in the…

I grew up in a low socioeconomic area in a densely populated Asian city. The rapid urbanization resulted in high-level air and noise pollution, which had substantial negative impact on people’s physical and mental health. I certainly found life oppressive in that environment. Now, I have made Australia home for many years. I enjoy the…

The world we live in bears the hallmarks of humans who have exploited and plundered God’s creation with devastating results for our world. Deforestation, increasing species extinction, air pollution, the rapid increase in our climate, and lack of clean water mar the goodness and beauty of God’s creation in obvious ways. And ecological degradation almost…

When we talk about “translation,” we understand that we have in mind two languages. Translation is to render something originally in one language in the other language. Saying that the Bible teaches a wrong cosmology also implies a difference: a correct version and a wrong version. Where “accommodation” is invoked the biblical version might not…

Theories abound on the inspiration of Scripture, from God dictating precise words to the Holy Spirit inspiring biblical authors in much the same way musicians speak of being inspired when they create a masterpiece. One theory of inspiration that holds great sway among American evangelicals particularly, states that the Bible is true in all that…

During the first day of my college course on the relationship between science and religion, I have my students draw a diagram of the scene that they envision in Genesis 1:2. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the…

No topic within the doctrine of creation has been more unsettled by modern science than theological anthropology. Increased knowledge of the physical world has raised new difficulties for traditional views of the human person—are human minds as separable from the body as previous ages believed? Is belief in an immaterial soul scientifically naïve? More recently,…

The Henry Center is pleased to announce Benjamin Parks as the winner of the 2017–18 Brown Award for Student Scholarship. The Brown Award is one of the six initiatives of the Creation Project, and was created to encourage graduate-level research at the intersection of science and the doctrine of creation. Parks’ essay, “From the Waters…

The question whether humans were mortal before the fall only comes up in a religious, and more specifically a Judeo-Christian, context. That is not just because the notion of the fall refers to the Bible, but also because from a secular point of view it is obvious that humans must have been mortal all along….