A survey of the varying approaches and perspectives on the age of the earth, evolution, and specific interest on biological development of the human. Students consider the data, evidence for the age of the earth, the development of the human, and hermeneutical methods for cohering nature with God’s special revelation of human creation and redemption. Focused attention is given to the Adamic relation to humanity, human uniqueness, the image of God, and how they fit into the overarching redemption and mission of God.
Three primary paradigms for integrating biological development and Divine action are surveyed with an eye to a theology of nature and God’s mission in it.
The course considers 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.
The present course considers 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 that the student can use in real life circumstances reflecting the tenets of creationism, intelligent design, or evolutionary creationism.
Through student interactions, projects, and writing, students develop an environment that aids in the process of becoming ‘missionizers’ in the ‘science and theology’ communities.
