Come out ye gifted kings and queens and hear my sad complaint
Usually even a non-Christian knows something about the Earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world... Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation... The shame is... that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions... If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven...?
St Augustine, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis.
I will be trying to encourage my students to see evolution and religion as compatible and this struck me as a very sensible argument. Unfortunately quoting Doctors of the Church only works on Catholics, who already believe in evolution (since Vatican II).
posted by Nick @ 11:28 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
I thought I saw St. Augustine last night, actually. Then I realised what the problem was. I had too much to dream last night.
Protestants might also at least consider St Augustine - they'll just check want to him against the Scriptures.
I suspect that Protestants submit to authority just as much as Catholics, but they get to pick and choose the authorities.
For example, I'm much more likely to go with whatever John Piper says than Rick Warren. Why? He's less likely to take Bible verse out of context and trawl through different translations looking for catch phrases. Do I check what John Piper says against Scripture? Only if it sounds unreasonable.
(Did B have too much to dream or too much to drink?!)
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