Michael Shermer accurately summarizes our argument, and his review of our book is fair if not downright magnanimous. At one point, he even appears to concede that, strictly speaking, we cannot get an “ought from an is”—that science by itself cannot discover moral truths. If this is what he thinks, then Shermer and we seem…

It is safe to say that Plundering Eden is an exercise of the imagination. I, of course, do not practice what I preach to a degree I would desire. I am honored and humbled to have this conversation around my book by such excellent scholars. Response to Brian Brock I am grateful for Brian Brock’s…

Plundering Eden is not a boring book, either in its rhetoric or its substance. Wagenfuhr addresses his audience with forthright statements and forceful assertions, which serve to undergird his powerful ethical challenge. The problem the book addresses is both empirical and ideological. Problems, Empirical and Ideological Wagenfuhr marshals important evidence to show that human interaction…

The author of Plundering Eden is passionate about the need to wake up to a new way of perceiving the dire state we are in ecologically and what Christians, especially those committed to evangelical traditions, need to do about it. In keeping with the intent of this symposium series, I am not going to summarize…

G. P. Wagenfuhr serves as Theology Coordinator for ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Plundering Eden (2020) is a follow-up to his earlier book, Plundering Egypt: A Subversive Christian Ethic of Economy (2016). The subtitles for both books describe them as “subversive.” Even a casual reading of Plundering Eden reveals this description to be…

“If there is no God, Murder Isn’t Wrong” So says the religious conservative radio talk show host and author Dennis Prager in a PragerU video viewed by 4.5 million people. I rebutted Prager in a studio debate hosted by Dave Rubin for his Rubin Report show, in which I made the case that rejecting “Divine…

When I first typed out my editorial on viral non-evil, the coronavirus was still novel and the panic not quite a pandemic. But as I type now, close to a 1.5 million have died worldwide and the virus proliferates relentlessly, a conflagration with plenty of wood yet to burn as we await a vaccine and…

Before I reveal the One Correct Way Christians ought to understand the coronavirus, let’s clear some brush out of the way and establish some basic principles. It would seem that something can be neither good nor bad, just existing. An icicle hanging off the edge of a roof seems devoid of moral valence—until it suddenly…

Jesus once told a parable about a farmer who sowed good seeds in his field. Once “the plants came up and bore grain,” however, his servant discovered that the field also contained weeds. The servant approached his master and asked him, “Where . . . did these weeds come from?” The good farmer replied, “An…

Every time there is a natural disaster the question of God’s goodness and the nature of evil resurfaces. How can a good God allow bad things to happen? Is what we experience as evil bad in itself, or is our suffering from it part of the fallen order of creation? What do we say when…

Nobody thinks that the ultimate consummation of the Kingdom God will be a place where rogue viruses kill hundreds of thousands of people, or hurricanes ravage whole communities, or cancer cuts lives short. So we Christians believe it is possible for there to be that kind of place. But was creation originally a place that…

The topic of religious belief and evolution is quite notorious for its potential to arouse heated debates that easily become acrimonious (even this forum has not entirely escaped from such responses). In this way, the Dutch precursor of Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory met with some fierce criticism that sometimes misstated both its content and…