Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation | Gordon J. Glover

Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation | Gordon J. Glover | Another Winner

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Beyond the Firmame...

	Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation Gordon J. Glover Watertree Press, 2007 - 228 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

As debates within the Church over the scientific details of creation become more frequent, the experts seem to grow more entrenched while the rest of us only become more confused. Somewhere between the endless arguments over distant starlight and Carbon-14 dating, calculating the mathematical improbabilities of things that already exist, and parsing ancient Hebrew and Greek, somebody needs to ask the simple question, If 3,500 years of scientific progress can t help modern Christians figure out Genesis, then how could the ancient Israelites possibly have understood it so well? What secret did this newly liberated gaggle of Hebrew nomads take with them out of Egypt that holds the key to understanding God s telling of His own creation story? Beyond the Firmament challenges all creationist camps whether Young-Earth, Old-Earth, or Theistic Evolutionist to step outside of traditional paradigms and recognize how our modern, Western, post-Enlightenment scientific worldview actually blinds us from seeing the simple truth of Creation as it was originally intended; and how our failure to grasp the theological significance of the biblical creation model puts science and faith on a collision course.

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The Bible does not teach Young Earth Creationism

How different would Christian evangelism be if all of the Young Earth Creationists (YECs) gradually folded their tents and gave up their sincere but misguided fight that is so detrimental to Christian evangelism, especially toward the scientific community. Since YECs believe that the Bible trumps science every time, no argument from science is ever going to make this happen. This book, written by an evangelical Christian layman for conservative evangelical Christian adherents of Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Intelligent Design, takes a giant step toward achieving the above goal.

Gordon J. Glover maintains that YECs and OECs are equally wrong in their approach to interpreting Genesis 1 & 2 (and other references to creation in the Bible). His main theme is that Genesis 1 & 2 are not scientific accounts of the origin of the universe and that both YECs and OECs err in trying to interpret it that way. He makes a very good case from the Bible itself that God accommodated his message to what the Israelites of that time could understand, and that God's message was theological, not scientific.

This approach is not new. It has been well developed in a number of commentaries on Genesis, including but not limited to John H. Walton's "The NIV Application Commentary-Genesis," C. John Collins' "Genesis 1-4," and Henri Blocher's "In the Beginning." What is new here is a discussion of the issues in a form much more accessable to Christian laymen. The author is neither a scientist nor a theologian, and, while his writing style is a bit flippant at times, he makes his points well, forcefully and understandably. He also acknowledges that it is going to take a lot of time for YECs to make the transition to a different way of understanding God's message in Genesis.

The author describes his reluctant acceptance of evolution as just another natural process through which God has been operating in his providental governance of the universe. In that vein, he expresses his dislike of the term "theistic evolution" as not making any more sense than "theistic meteorology." He cites a number of clearly stated, understandable reasons why biological evolution is currently the most reasonable explanation of the facts that scientists are observing in nature.

The author goes on to very clearly demonstrate that "creation science" is not science, that science is not the enemy of Christianity, and that science does not lie. He summarizes his position on "creation science" in four bullet points on page 105 as follows:
(1) Creaton science removes the Bible out from under the protection of the ancient Near-Eastern worldview - where truth did not always have to be expressed in scientific terms, and subjects it to the rigors of the modern materialists' worldview - which requires truth to always be precisely communicated in scientific terms.
(2) Creation science marginalizes the timeless theological realities of the creation story by exposing the timely physical details to scientific ridicule.
(3) Creation science hands the secular world a Biblical straw-man that can be easily torn down, along with the entire Christian faith.
(4) Since all scientific propositions are subject to falsification, creation science puts the Lord our God to the test!

I only wish that there were some way that Young Earth Creationists (and a few Old Earth Creationists) could be exposed to this book. I highly recommend it.

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Another Winner

I am working on a Doctorate in Religius Studies. My area of study is primarily focused on how to best interpret the Bible. This is a book that informed, inquisitive, and serious Christians should read. I like others have been brought up in a very conservative theological enviroment. I have accepted certain ideas about interpretation because these have come from trusted sources. I am open to truth since I believe all truth is Gods truth. This book will help you to stretch your thinking while at the same time encourage you to continue to study to 'the glory of God'. This is a must read for those interested in interpretation and those interested in understanding Genesis, the book of beginnings. This should also be most helpful for those concerned about the creation evolution debate. It takes a more reliable historical literary approach, which differs from and clarifies the weaknesses of both entrenched views. (that is from an interpretive perspective) A good read, a real blessing. Pastor Ken

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This is the place to start.

The whole conflict between faith and science has been trumped up. Does this surprise you? This book will convince you.

This book is divided up into four sections. "What do we know and how do we know it?" is a preliminary, basic overview of what is called "epistemology" in fancy terms, making distinctions between natural and special revelation that carry the next two sections. "What can the Bible tell us about nature?" is a look at the special revelation in the Bible and discusses the boundaries of what it can tell us and why we can't just assume over-literalized interpretations when interpreting it. In the next section, "What can nature tell us about itself?", Glover describes what science can tell us about the beginning of the universe and the origin our our solar sytem, and then describes why radiometric dating methodology is reliable. The last section, "What about evolution?" is a summary of evolutionary theory.

Glover's strong points are his knack for analogy and his conversational style. His humility and honesty about the limitations of science make bearable the experience of shattering the "godless atheist" facade so many evangelicals have constructed in front of mainstream science. He explains some heady concepts (including a bit of mathematics and physics) very simply, and just in case it starts seeming too dense, he doesn't linger there long; for more advanced readers, he provides references to more technical works.

This book was not meant to grapple with theological issues associated with Adam or the Fall; it does try to provide a case for not simply dismissing any data that might make us take a second look at our first guess on those topics.

This book is accessible but not condescending, enjoyable and humorous at times but not a slick car-sales job, earnest but not overbearing.
For anyone who might be interested in looking into the issue of evolutionary creationism (Glover's term of choice in lieu of "theistic evolution"), Beyond the Firmament is the place to start.

Also make sure to check out his website at http://blog.beyondthefirmament.com.

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Required reading for anyone interested in Creation Science

There are loads of books on all sides of the Bible/science controversy, but I can say without exaggeration that "Beyond the Firmament" ought to be at the top of the required reading list. It is down to earth and easy to grasp, giving a good summary of the scientific evidences for the antiquity of the universe and biological evolution, and why Christians ought to care about these things, while maintaining a faith-affirming interpretation of the Bible. Whether you agree or disagree with the author's approach or with the evidences, there are still critical questions that are often left un-asked, which the author does a good job of conveying to a primarily non-technical audience.

The book is particularly styled toward conservative Christians, who tend to be the ones demanding scientific precision from ancient Biblical texts. The author, who once held this view, has been where many Christians fear to tread -- honestly investigating the scientific evidence of "the other side." He has returned, bringing an honest and forthright testimony that believers don't have to choose between accepting faith or the scientific evidence of the natural world. He holds that the Bible can be literally true (according to its intended message), while not necessarily being scientifically accurate according to science's limited knowledge in any given generation.

His main conclusion is that God's purpose in the Bible was to give timeless principles, in particular to the original Hebrew exiles from Egypt. They came out of a polytheistic culture, and needed to have reestablished in their minds the transcendence of a monotheistic Hebrew God. God chose the Ancient Near East (ANE) cosmology as a familiar framework for transforming the polytheistic views of the ANE into the monotheistic religion of the Hebrews, and to answer the questions important to them, such as who is God, and does he have all power over creation? God did not choose a 20th century cosmology as the literary framework for answering modern-day creation science questions, such as how old is the universe, or what physical mechanisms led to the present biological diversity? Requiring scripture to answer these questions is anachronistic, and does injustice to the timeless themes God intended to convey, in favor of timely questions that have only been important to Western scientific culture in the last few hundred years.

Be sure to see the introductory videos on the author's Web site, http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/video-presentations/does-science-contradict-the-bible/. These contain the same basic information as the early part of the book, but present it in a succinct and visually appealing manner.

Just a word about a few of the weaknesses of the book, aside from the occasional glaring typo. Technical readers may complain that the scientific portions gloss over too much of the scientific technicalities, but this is not the goal of the book. In the section on DNA, the emphasis on the staggering numbers of various potential genetic sequences are a bit too technical for the general audience. In the end, the conclusion for why this necessarily looks more like common descent than common design is less than convincing, at least on my first time through. He may be 100% correct, but as a non-specialist in genetic science, the conclusion here seemed to be reaching a bit.

The book uses primarily cosmological history to address why we shouldn't try to use the Bible as a scientific text, but doesn't really deal with the difficult theological problems of how to handle such questions as death before the fall, Adam and Eve and their descendents, or Noah's flood (although the ANE firmament cosmology should provide the reader a basis for reexamining traditional assumptions about the flood). For these questions, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Gordon Glover isn't the first to propose a framework interpretation of Genesis 1, but he does so in such a way as to be accessible to the average reader, and maintains a high view of scripture in the process.

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An excellent insight into how to approach the topic

I thought this book was excellent. I've long been troubled by what I thought was an unnecessary and hurtful conflict between many in the Christian faith and the scientific community. I've been apalled at some of the nonsense coming out of "Answers in Genesis" or the "Creation Science Institute". It's genuinely damaging to one's witness when your credibility as a thinking person is instantly dismissed because so many people associate Christianity with a young earth dogma.

Best parts of the book: Insight into the common themes among near east "creation stories" that the original readers of Genesis would have been familiar with. Also, the author does one of the better jobs of suggesting a means of how to approach Genesis in a way that lets the Book speak for itself without us instantly slathering it in a 20th century mindset.

Also, the examples from history are very powerful. I was familiar with the heliocentric controversy but had not been entirely clear on the controversy over the spherical earth. If nothing else, those two embarrassing chapters in Christian history should give any Young Earth Creationist pause, lest they continue to part of yet another sad chapter today.

Weaker parts: Towards the later chapters, it feels a bit repetitive in parts. Also, he would do well to provide folks with some more guidance on what else to read to better understand the science he is summarizing. It is in the footnotes, but a reading guide at the end would be good.

Sadly, I think the audience most in need of reading this will toss it aside, hissing "heresy" rather than even consider the points the author makes.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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