A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Benjamin J. Montoya, PhD
About the Author
Victor Kuligin (D.Th., University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) is the author of Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said and The Language of Salvation. Since 2010, he has been academic dean and lecturer at the Bible Institute of South Africa. Prior to this, he performed the same duties at Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary. Kuligin’s master’s degree in biblical studies is from Wheaton Graduate School.
Introduction
Much of biblical scholarship remains a footnote to the New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann who wrote things like, “We cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament.” Many professing Christians, including pastors, would share this same belief when it comes to passages like Genesis 1-3, saying it is just a myth or fictional story. Is that really the case? Does it matter how we view Scripture and God’s created order? The role of Christians today should be a prophetic one to declare God’s will for his creation; science, instead of altering people’s views of Scripture, should serve as a handmaiden to theology, not the other way around. Consider this summary to learn more!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 God’s Created Order and Scientific Enterprise: Its Philosophical Understanding
Chapter 2 God’s Created Order and Scientific Enterprise: Its Practical Outworking
Chapter 3 God’s Created Order and Evolutionary Theory: A Theological Perspective
Chapter 4 God’s Created Order and Evolutionary Theory: A Scientific Perspective
Chapter 5 God’s Created Order and the Sanctity of Life
Chapter 6 God’s Created Order and the Environment
Chapter 7 God’s Created Order and Gender Roles
Chapter 8 God’s Created Order and Sexual Morality
Chapter 9 God’s Created Order and Homosexuality
Chapter 10 God’s Created Order and Marriage
Summary
Chapter 1: God’s Created Order and Scientific Enterprise: Its Philosophical Understanding
The roots of modern scientific inquiry, including the scientific method itself, are rooted in an understanding that God has created order. To even have observable patterns upon which to make scientific conclusions necessitates order; but this same so-called science has taken a very different direction altogether.
Instead of taking a more top-down approach with God being the creator and man being the creature, modern science has reframed the entire discussion. A series of scientific discoveries has led people to think that humans have an insignificant role in this world when viewed through the lens of godless materialism. Scientists have continued to promulgate this kind of position especially on the basis of Darwinism and Freud’s research that has stripped man of his rightful position in creation to equating him with any other animal. When these same scientific ideas have been applied to the biblical text, the creation “story” becomes just that—a fictional story, not an accurate portrayal of reality. It becomes necessary to reinterpret the biblical narrative using different methods to recast the traditional understanding of these biblical accounts because of what science has supposedly discovered. Science is always assumed to be fact, forcing a reconsideration of the biblical text.
Is science at odds with the Bible, then? Absolutely not. Instead, “Science, when performed with God at its heart, should never contradict God’s revelation found in his holy Word. Nevertheless, the Bible does oppose the philosophical underpinnings of atheistic materialism, which is the driving presupposition of the scientific enterprise today. Science must become the handmaiden of theology.”
To maintain the prophetic voice of the church, science must be kept in its rightful role while maintaining the teachings of God’s Word regarding his created order. All the other reframing provided by the modern scientific perspective ought not make Christians abandon God’s Word for contradictory views or the implications of those views. . . .
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