Painting the Stars: Science, Religion and An Evolving Faith
Home Edition
This new DVD entitled Painting
the Stars put out by Living the Questions is a collection of 20 minute
sessions devoted to the connection between science and religion, specifically
Christianity and an evolving spirituality.
The contributors range from Philip Clayton, Michael Dowd, to Rachel Held
Evans and John Shelby Spong. The premise of the sessions is the main point
that in order to heal the rift between science and Christianity we must embrace
an evolutionary Christian spirituality, one that embraces the cosmos with the
ancient Christian practices of meditation, prayer, community, and reading. To progressive believers, these sessions will
strengthen your faith and vision of a spiritual life that is inclusive and
includes an acceptance of an evolutionary paradigm that describes each stage of
life. As an evangelical believer, I
found these sessions to be very hard to stomach yet insightful in many cases.
Highlights
In the session on Getting Genesis Wrong, the contributors
mention that Genesis has often been a book swirling with vociferous arguments
about days of creation and the meaning of dominion. Yet, these type of arguments have missed the
larger picture of the stewardship of creation and the environment. The way that God blesses the created order,
including the animals and gives Adam and Eve responsibility to take care of the
creation is paramount to our understanding of Christian spirituality today. Taking care of creation is not something for
zany secular environmentalists but should be at the heart of the Christian
faith. If the Genesis narrative in the beginning
is our story as well, then we should take heed to interpret the original
creation story with great care concerning environmental issues.
There is a deep resonance we can have with believers of
other religious traditions as evidenced in these sessions. Meditation is not something unique to the
Christian faith but available in other traditions. At one point, one of the contributors says
that if the Christian faith is to maintain its vitality, we must engage in the
practices of the faith, for the practices will sustain us and not the
dogma. I resonate with this idea because
I too believe that Christian practices of meditation, community, worship, and
prayer are integral to a robust and healthy spirituality. Lastly, I think that the synthesis of science
and religion can be at times helpful in seeing that God has not divorced
serious study from the life of the church, and that those who take Christianity
seriously shouldn’t be threatened by the wave of evolutionary thought.
Critique
With that being said, I was also concerned about the
Christian practices of the faith were divorced from theological
foundations. There was a keen sense that
the contributors desired to get rid of dogmatic or theological foundations in
exchange for a more inclusive spirituality.
My problem here is that these Christian practices of prayer, community,
Scripture, and meditation are squarely based upon a robust theological vision
that cannot be swept under the rug for convenience sake. Meditation is key in the Christian life, but
the question that is important is what is our meditation based upon? Are we mediating upon Scripture or sources
outside of Scripture that control our thinking?
I understand that people want to be on guard about theological
absolutism, but throwing these tenents out entirely misses the boat.
Lastly, I appreciate the environmental points related to
understanding Genesis. Yet, I believe the
contributors left out the historical and polemical nature of the Genesis
1-2. It is very hard to understand
Genesis without an appreciation for the polemical thrust of the narrative in
which the author seeks to understand Israel’s beginnings in the midst of other
nations. Now, I know this doesn’t lend
well to the evolutionary conversation but it aids in helping us understand the
intent of the Genesis narratives.
Overall, I appreciated this DVD as a look at an evolutionary
view of spirituality. I think these sessions are geared for someone already on
the progressive side of things, but I think it was interesting nonetheless.
Thanks to SpeakEasy and Living the Questions for the copy of
this DVD in exchange for review.
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