Evolution and our Theological Traditions: Calvinism, Part 15

"The BioLogos Forum" frequently features essays from The BioLogos Foundation's leaders and Senior Fellows. Please note the views expressed here are those of the author, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation. You can read more about what we believe here.

Today's entry was written by Pete Enns. Pete Enns is a former Senior Fellow of Biblical Studies for The BioLogos Foundation and author of several books and commentaries, including the popular Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, which looks at three questions raised by biblical scholars that seem to threaten traditional views of Scripture.

Summary

The Old Princeton legacy (which I began discussing here) is not immune to criticism. A common criticism is that it tends towards a degree of theological precision that the text itself may not be able to bear. Others say that it tends to exclude alternate perspectives. These and other criticisms may have merit, and I do not wish to create the impression that Calvinism is worthy of more respect than other models.

As I mentioned last week, the reason we are beginning here and spending a considerable amount of time on Calvinism is because of its pervasive influence on how much of contemporary Evangelicalism understands the nature of Scripture. That being said, in my opinion, the Calvinist tradition has not been seized as fully as it could be to help the science/faith discussion along.

In its best iterations, Calvinism is a “third way” that negotiates between the extremes of (1) a dismissal of Scripture as God’s word because of it obvious human dimension, and (2) a dismissal of the historical dimension of Scripture in an effort to protect its divine dimension. The first option is typically referred to as “liberalism” and the second as “fundamentalism.” That is a bit reductionistic as far as I am concerned, but those are the popularly accepted labels.

The Calvinist legacy, at least in principle, is well suited to avoid these extremes for one simple reason. It embraces the “incarnate” nature of Scripture, that it is God’s word but in human form. Scripture is a divine, inspired text, and also on every page bears the unmistakable, discernable, and wonderful stamp of the time and space bound human beings who by inspiration produced it.

And this stamp is not to be observed theoretically nor as an unfortunate concession. Rather it is an affirmation that the human element of Scripture is worthy of the most careful and thoughtful reflection, with potentially important, theologically significant payoff. This is a distinctive and vital mark of the Calvinist legacy.

I would like to suggest one specific area in which a Calvinist approach to Scripture could, in principle, be employed with great profit in moving forward in how Christians can think through the intersection of evolution and Scripture.

Genesis in its ancient Near Eastern Context

A Calvinist approach to Scripture entails a genuine and enthusiastic embrace of the historical context of Scripture and the implications of that context for how we understand Scripture. If Scripture is truly a historically situated phenomenon, a product of a God who is willing to speak the idiom of the time, than it is incumbent upon all Christians to interpret Scripture in view of its historical context.

There are few portions of Scripture where our increasing understanding of its historical context has had a more striking impact than the creation texts in Genesis 1-2, as well as other texts (especially in the Psalms) that clearly play off of ancient Near Eastern themes.

Archaeological discoveries spanning the last 150 years have brought to light texts from ancient Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt that have had a direct and profound impact on how we understand the biblical creation texts. There is hardly a verse of Genesis 1-2 that is not illuminated by some corresponding theme from the religious texts of Israel’s neighbors.

The details cannot be treated here, and several blog posts and essays on this site have already done so. In general, the creation texts from the ancient Near East have helped us come to terms with the kind of information we can expect the biblical creation accounts to deliver. This context helps us to see that Israel’s creation stories were written to speak to profound theological realities about who their God is, what he is like, and what it means for Israel to be in a covenant relationship with him.

In other words, Israel’s creation stories, when understood in the historical context in which they were written, do not address modern curiosities about the formation of the physical universe in scientific terms. To expect as much from Genesis is to read it against the historical grain, which, if we take our cue from the Calvinist tradition, is to show disrespect for God who chose to speak within the confines of the particulars of history.

God is not an enemy of the drama of human history but participates in it. To lift Genesis out of its historical moment and read it in a manner that its audience would not have remotely grasped—actually, that no audience would have grasped before the advent of modern science—is not a high view of Scripture but a marginalizing—if not dismissal—of the very manner in which God has chosen to speak.

The ancient Near Eastern material helps us identify properly the genre of Genesis—it helps us calibrate the genre of Genesis to keep us from making the all-too-common error in genre misidentification. These texts force us, in ways earlier generations of Christians did not have to, to read Genesis in ancient ways, and in doing so to marvel, once again, at how willing God is to come to our level in order to speak. This point, as we recall, is a regular theme among Calvinist interpreters.

Knowing what we know about Bible in context, especially the biblical creation texts, should discourage any sort of concordism between Scripture and contemporary science. Following the lead of the Calvinists, we misread Genesis if we expect to find there information that corresponds to modern science—as if God has hidden there a story that would not have been understood for over 2000 years of its existence.

Rather, the “language” of Genesis will be respected for what it is: an ancient story speaking in an ancient idiom but with enduring theological significance. And that enduring significance is not found in how well Genesis and science dovetail, but in hearing Israel’s theology ring out through the ancient idiom.

This, in my opinion, is a strong legacy of the Calvinist tradition and one that would greatly aid continued Evangelical discussion over the relationship between Scripture and evolution.