theology

The Issue of Creatio Ex…

Posted on May 22, 2012

I was reading Trip Fuller’s post on Home-Brewed Christianity here: http://homebrewedchristianity.com/2012/05/21/creation-out-of-nothing-is-overrated-for-tony-jones/ and thought I would post a piece I wrote awhile ago on Wayne Grudem’s notion of creatio ex nihilo, and process theology’s component of creatio ex profundis. This was in conversation of how to constructively rethink the term kabash, meaning dominion.

The Issue of Creatio Ex…

The ~~second~~ discussion that takes part in Grudem’s creation account is the idea that God created the universe out of nothing, ex nihilo. The text itself does not state this, as we read from the understanding of Rashi, or through Brueggeman’s reading of the text. The Hebrew scripture is not concerned of creatio ex nihilo. So there is open room for interpretation.

Theodicy: Griffin’s Process Theodicy and Davis’ Free Will Defense Theodicy

Posted on April 11, 2012

I was in my philosophy of religion class discussing Stephen Davis’ theodicy of evil, when I asked him about his view of creation, that God made “Adam and Eve” spiritually immature. This seems contradictory to me, since only within the two chapters of the creation account, God gives dominion of the earth to “Adam and Eve,” and yet does not give them the spiritual maturity to handle the situation. The conversation I was trying to build with the teacher was that God, who he claims is omnipotent, and all good, had to create create evil, and that it should not be the responsibility of humanity to take the blame for it. The readings showed that his view, the Free Will Defense view (first introduced by Alvin Platinga, but I believe greatly refuted by Raymond Bradley here) is the best possible scenario that shows that humanity is responsible for evil, and God still maintains God’s goodness, as well as God’s all-power. I do not agree.