Last month, we announced the 37 grantees from our Evolution & Christian Faith program! This month, we take a closer look at the projects and what’s “in the pipeline” over the coming years from these grantees!

Congratulations to the 37 winners of the Evolution & Christian Faith (ECF) grants competition! ECF is a new BioLogos program designed to support projects and network-building among scholars, church leaders, and parachurch organizations.

Although committed to the principle of sola Scriptura, Calvin recognized that the Bible would have been written in terms its original recipients would have understood. Calvin inherited the medieval cosmology of his time, a way of viewing the world heavily influenced by Greek thought and one which was about to receive shocks from astronomers such as Copernicus and Galileo. But not just yet.

People hold clearly discordant points of view, and it would be dishonest to ignore the conflict. Yet some voices emphasize the dissonance without any note of harmony to put it in context. Too often, science and faith becomes a hostile battle of worldviews, sounding angry, dissonant chords even among fellow Christians. But civil, gracious dialogue is possible.

With great pleasure, the Board of Directors of The BioLogos Foundation announces the appointment of Deborah Haarsma to become our next President, and of Jeffrey Schloss to the role of Senior Scholar. Professor Haarsma assumes leadership from our outgoing President Darrel Falk, to whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.

My goal in leading this organization for these past three and a half years has been to lay the groundwork to help my fellow evangelicals see that the conflict between our faith and mainstream science is not as great as they thought it was. In the process, my thinking has been significantly shaped by listening to people who think differently than I do

Part of BioLogos mission is to show how all things hold together in Christ—to show how a Christian worldview integrates the knowledge we have of God through the Scriptures with the knowledge we have of God through the other areas in which He reveals himself as Creator and Redeemer.

“Man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not because God made him so but because he has made himself so by the abuse of his free will. To my mind this is the sole function of the doctrine [of the Fall].”—C.S. Lewis

Throughout my various conversations with fellow believers, the most-mentioned anxiety over accepting an evolutionary creationist paradigm is the fear of losing the Bible as one’s spiritual anchor and source of authority.

How do we give our visitors access to our vast archive of resources, and how do we make sure they are finding the resources that address their most pressing questions?

In this series, Ryan Pettey offers several clips from his powerful documentary "From the Dust". This feature-length film is divided up into various sections, each of which wrestles with the difficult problems that arise when reconciling Scripture with the theory of evolution. A light of hope dawns on the science-faith conversation, however, as scientists and theologians engage in honest dialogue about tough issues such as the interpretation of Genesis, the nature of the Fall, and the idea of random design. Their profound insights are sure to enlighten all minds, raise deeper questions, and provoke new thought.

Noi di BioLogos crediamo che Dio abbia usato il processo evolutivo per creare tutte le forme di vita presenti oggi sulla Terra. Mentre da un lato accettiamo la scienza dell’evoluzione, rifiutiamo nettamente l’evoluzionismo. L’evoluzionismo è una visione atea del mondo ed afferma che la vita si è sviluppata senza Dio, senza un fine e senza intenzionalità. Al contrario, noi siamo d’accordo con i Cristiani che, aderendo al Disegno Intelligente e al Creazionismo, affermano che il Dio della Bibbia ha creato l’universo e tutte le forme di vita. I Cristiani sono però in disaccordo su come Dio ha creato. I Creazionisti della Terra Giovane credono che Dio abbia espletato la sua azione creatrice tra i 6.000 e i 10.000 anni fa e sono in disaccordo con gran parte della scienza tradizionale. I sostenitori del Disegno Intelligente accettano gran parte della scienza dell’evoluzione, ma sostengono che alcune caratteristiche della vita siano meglio spiegate dall’intervento diretto di una entità intelligente, piuttosto che da un normale e regolare modo di operare da parte di Dio tramite i processi naturali. Noi di BioLogos siamo d’accordo con il moderno consenso scientifico riguardo all’età della Terra e dello sviluppo evolutivo di tutte le specie, vedendo queste come descrizioni di come Dio ha creato. Il termine BioLogos deriva dalle parole bios (vita) e logos (parola), e si riferisce all’inizio del Vangelo secondo Giovanni: “Nel principio c’era la Parola, e la Parola era presso Dio, e la Parola era Dio. Essa era nel principio con Dio. Per mezzo di lei tutte le cose sono state fatte”.

As he endeavored to learn more, David was intrigued by Francis Collins book The Language of God because Francis did not present evolution as a rival theory to Christian faith, but as something that described God's method of creation.

We need to have an account of Sin in terms of habit. A lot of Christians today think of “sins” and discreet choices, but historically Christians have thought of Sin as a habitual tendency and disordering.

In this series, Ted Davis identifies the history, core tenets and assumptions about the theistic evolution view.

Since the BioLogos/Highway Media collaboration From the Dust made its worldwide debut this year, we’ve been excited to hear how others have been using the film to jump start their own conversations with fellow Christians about science and faith .

What are the best ways to spark productive conversations about science and faith? Certainly there are books, articles, blogs (like this one), and podcasts. But there are particular advantages to using film.

This exchange brings together related essays on death in light of evolution and Scripture from Southern Baptist theologian Dr. John Laing. Laing argues that evolutionary theory requires death to play a central role in the creation of new life, but sees Scripture depicting death only "as an invader, disturber of peace, and a force of evil." A BioLogos response is given by Dr. Jeff Schloss.

Our desire to engage in gracious dialogue with fellow believers who reject biological evolution has been receiving increased attention in both the Christian and secular press. More importantly, we are being joined in this reconciling project by our brothers and sisters in Christ who have often been defined primarily as our “opponents”.

I cannot overstate the joy and privilege of leading an organization that— from the beginning—was so uniquely poised to help the conservative church in its process of coming to peace with science in general, and evolutionary biology, in particular.