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Book Review: Frankenstein

frankenstein book photo
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Photo by CalamityJon

This year marks the 200th anniversary of one of my favorite books – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Actually, its full title is Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus. And that is a good reminder that this novel is really about Frankenstein the man, not about his creation. Frankenstein is the one who steals from the gods (God?) the ability to create life from that which is lifeless. And, as long as we are clearing up misconceptions, the novel is not about re-animating the dead, as is often popularly shown in the movies, but about the formation of a new being from parts that were not necessarily even human. Early in the narration of his creation, Frankenstein says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent nations would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (61,62). This last sentence in particular is full of dark foreboding because gratitude is an emotion which his creation never feels. [Read more…] about Book Review: Frankenstein

Owning education

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Hand of God giving life to Adam, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54258 (retrieved April 8, 2014). Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam821/3077868328/.

 The Marks of a Christian Teacher: A Vocational Description (Part Two)[1]
Mark Eckel, ThM PhD, Professor of Leadership, Education & Discipleship
Capital Seminary & Graduate School, Washington, D.C.

The true function of the teacher is to create the most favorable conditions for self-learning.
True teaching is not that which gives knowledge, but that which stimulates pupils to gain it.
One might say that he teaches best who teaches least.[2]

“I do not want you to believe anything I tell you.”  My mantra was repeated daily.

“I want you to be Bereans. The Bereans did not take at face value what Paul said but searched Scripture for themselves to see if he was correct.”[3]

“This is not Eckelology.” The comment always brought smiles. More serious expressions were given when I said, “We study God’s Word for the sake of God’s world.”

“My responsibility as a teacher is to make sure you become lifelong learners. If you only learn to follow an authority’s words without thought, you will allow anyone with the loudest voice or the most letters behind her name to sway your thinking.”

“You need to own what you believe. The one word definition of education is ownership.” [Read more…] about Owning education

What about Adam and Eve? Part 1

Introduction

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts concerned with Christian questions about evolution. One of the biggest dilemmas is what to do about Adam and Eve.

  • Were they real people?
  • How were they created?
  • Was Adam the father of all mankind?
  • What about the story in Genesis 3 of the fall of Adam and Eve and consequently all of mankind into sin?
  • Do the creation stories in Genesis communicate real, historical events or are they myths that God is using to communicate timeless truths?

These are the concerns I want to address in this and my next post.

Two book model of revelation

God reveals himself through the Bible/Scripture (special revelation) and through what we observe in nature (general revelation).

In my first post in the  series I talked about dealing with the tension between science and the Bible. The Bible teaches that God reveals himself to man in two ways. One is through scripture (the Bible) and the other is through what we observe in nature (using science). This is perhaps best seen in Psalm 19 and in Romans 1:20. [Read more…] about What about Adam and Eve? Part 1

Getting a “Big Head”?

The Marks of a Christian Scholar: A Vocational Description (Part One)
Mark Eckel, ThM PhD, Professor of Leadership, Education & Discipleship[1]
Capital Seminary & Graduate School, Washington, D.C.

“The Christian scholar-teacher must be a person who believes in Christian higher education, who is committed to the mission of his or her institution. It is not enough to hire faculty who happen to be Christians, even if they are fine scholars. We must find and keep faculty who are committed to the project.” [2]

“Education Head.” From Is scientific knowledge true knowledge? Accessed 4/2/2014.

“RBB,” he said. My response registered a facial question mark. “Really Big Brains,” he smiled. “That’s what you professors have: really big brains.”

“RBH,” I said. He returned the questioning look. “Really Big Heads,” I smiled. “That’s what can happen to professors: we can get really big heads.”

Humility is the essence of knowledge. I have lost count of how many times I have intoned such a statement in classes. The first mark of Christian scholars is that we should know we do not know how much we don’t know (Luke 14:7-11; Rom 12:3; Phil 2:3-4). We should begin every thought where the gospel begins: we are dependent upon God. Knowing how much we do not know measures the creature by The Creator (Isa 55:8-9). Aseity[3] identifies our dependency (Acts 17:24-28). [Read more…] about Getting a “Big Head”?

Is Evolution Compatible with belief in God as the Creator?

This is the third in a series of blog posts concerned with Christian questions about evolution. In my last post we saw that science does not rule out God because it is not competent to address the question of God. But, is evolution compatible with belief in God as the Creator? That is the topic of this post.

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008).

A major concern for some Christians is that there is no need for God in the process of evolution. Ironically, this is also the view of atheists. In his book The God Delusion, the atheist biologist Richard Dawkins claims that evolution is not compatible with belief in a Creator God because of the automatic nature of the evolutionary process. He talks about a book Creation Revisited by another atheist scientist Peter Atkins. In this book Atkins

postulates a hypothetically lazy God who tries to get away with as little as possible in order to make a universe containing life. Atkins’s lazy god is even lazier than the deist God of the 18th-century Enlightenment: deus otiosus – literally, God at leisure, unoccupied, unemployed, superfluous, useless. Step-by-step Atkins succeeds in reducing the amount of work the lazy God has to do until he finally ends up doing nothing at all; he might as well not bother to exist.

A related concern for many Christians is that evolution can only be accepted by accommodating Biblical interpretation to fit contemporary scientific theories. [Read more…] about Is Evolution Compatible with belief in God as the Creator?