This course moves beyond an integration of Christian theology with empirical finding or an apologetic defense of theistic doctrine. Students take a deep dive into critical issues and how each paradigm addresses them, e.g., monogenesis and polygenesis, Adam, the image of God, human uniqueness, and the doctrine of sin.
Three primary paradigms for integrating biological development and Divine action are critically surveyed with an eye to a theology of nature and God’s mission in it.
The present course analyzes three ways of detecting God’s action through biology and how one might reconcile aspects of the biblical teaching on creation with what we find in nature.
Critical examination of science in relation to theology must be guided by Scripture, cohere with it, and be based on it as the final interpreter in making sense of cosmological and biological development. All three paradigms require different readings of the Bible and impact how the theologian puts together the pieces of the Bible.
The present course examines how the mission of God might shape, inform, and impact the data on the cosmos and biological development.
As with all academic disciplines, science and theology is contextual and follows certain conventions in the wider academic guild. Students gain competence sufficient in outlining the intellectual trends and the ability to offer substantive critique of those trends when necessary.
Students interact with and gain the tools to assess issues that are informed by an international set of scholars.
The course concludes with a concrete product(s) that the student can use in real life circumstances reflecting the tenets, literature, and organizing concepts of one of the following paradigms: creationism, intelligent design, or evolutionary creationism.
Through student interactions, projects, and writing, students access new perspectives on the Bible, nature, human beings, and our relation to God.
