In this issue:
Lutheran theologian explores the nature of God’s power in disasters
Faith/science curriculum offered for middle schoolers
Methodists affirm disapproval for creationism in schools
Lutheran theologian explores the nature of God’s power in disasters
Just as Job learned much about God’s nature when God spoke from the ‘whirlwind’, so can the rest of us when it comes to examining faith in light of recent natural disasters. Illustrating how human suffering and natural disasters show a complex but grace-filled relationship between humanity and God, the Rev. Dr. Terence E. Fretheim took on the topic of “God and Natural Disasters” last month at the Lutheran Center in Chicago as part of a lecture series during the annual Ecumenical Round Table on Faith, Science and Technology. Fretheim is author of the book, “Creation Untamed: The Bible, God and Natural Disasters.”
Recent surveys in the US, he said suggest that more than half of Christians believe that God controls everything in nature and roughly 29% believe that God punishes the sins of nations through natural disasters. In light of increasingly severe weather trends that include Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and powerful tornadoes in the Midwest and last year’s destruction of Joplin, Missouri, many have taken more seriously the reality of global warming and humanity’s culpability in rising temperatures.
So how much of the recent tragedies have to do with humans, how much with nature and how much of the blame lies with God, he asked? On Fretheim’s part he looks to the book of Job, something he suggested was ”natural” for a professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul!
“By appearing in the whirlwind, God discloses God’s self to Job within the natural order of things, the reality which has occasioned Job’s suffering,” said Fretheim. “God thereby depicts creation as both good and wild, both ordered and disorderly.”
Job, who survived numerous calamities, understands that his suffering is related to the nature of God’s creation and also God’s relationship to it. According to Fretheim, Job’s issue is a theological one and deals with a certain theology of nature. Events force Job to fault God for allowing a creation to be disorderly and out of God’s control. Justice is skewed, according to righteous Job and those who view natural disasters as a form of punishment for sin.
God’s response to this mindset is that creation is not as rigidly fixed as some believe nor is it as chaotic as Job thinks. This is where the current mis-interpretations of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina can be de-bunked. For Fretheim, human suffering may occur in God’s world because of the way God’s world has been created and the way in which God lets the creation be and become.
“We might, like Job, wish for a different world, without risk and without suffering and with full protection, but this is the world we have; and we are called to enjoy its remarkable gifts, not just to make the best of it,” said Fretheim.
He adds that this is a world sustained by God and that is both ordered and open-ended because of its continuing creative potential. This may seem chaotic or a source of unnecessary suffering, but it suggests that God has granted freedom to the nonhuman world to develop as it was meant to be. We often miss this reality about nature and how it suggests God’s relationship to this world is such that God no longer acts with complete freedom. Fretheim believes the bible shows us that God is committed to letting creatures be what they are created to be and that instances of suffering are not a matter of divine arbitrariness, but because God “makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).
While humans suffer due to the actions of other humans that have led to global warming, excessive carbon emissions for instance, it is worth remembering that God has made creation to be as it will be for the sake of the fullest life possible.
Fretheim’s lecture was open to the public as part of the meeting of the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church (ERT). The Roundtable annually brings together working groups dedicated to faith and science issues from many denominations. This year's roundtable was hosted by the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology, which is an independent organization of the ELCA dedicated to expanding awareness and promoting conversation about the implications of science and technology for Christian faith and life.
Faith/science curriculum offered for middle schoolers
The Catholic organization the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (ITEST) is now offering free faith and science lessons for students in grades 5th through 8th.
The lessons with both Christians and Catholic modules are free and can be downloaded at www.creationlens.org. The curriculum follows the development of lessons for pre-kindergarten to Grade 4, which was launched in 2009. Educators worldwide have downloaded more than a quarter of a million lessons since the program began, according to ITEST.
Science covered in the modules includes life science, physical science and earth sciences. For example in Grade 8 there are 10 lessons in the life sciences, including sessions on plant growth; the health of human the body; proper nutrients for growth; and growth, adaptation and survival. The modules are designed to be teacher-friendly, ready-to-use, and are side-by-side lessons providing hands on learning experiences for students. ITEST is encouraging feedback on each module in order to continue building on the curriculum.
Methodists affirm disapproval for creationism in schools
The United Methodist Church at its General Conference at the end of April did not support a petition to do away with the church’s stance against the teaching of creationism in the classroom and attendees found proposals on evolution popping up in a number of petitions filed during the conference.
Adopted in 2008, a resolution on evolution and intelligent design still stands and has the General Conference of the United Methodist Church going on the record as “opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools.”
A second petition changed the wording of the Methodist’s statement on science and technology, doing away with the words ‘cosmological’, ‘geological’ and ‘biological evolution’. ‘Biological evolution’ was replaced with simply ‘biology’. It is not clear what is behind the change in wording, but the new statement reads: “We find that science’s descriptions of cosmology, geology and biology are not in conflict with theology.”
The United Methodist Church has traditionally supported evolution, but emphasizes that all scripture, Christian teaching and tradition declares that God is Creator. But the church’s official position is that “The Theory of Evolution isn’t irrefutable fact, but only one model for interpreting scientific data, having shortcomings based on the fossil record and the design of life.”
Covalence, May 2012