Articles
Editorial
Sam Berry
Pages: 98-100
A Response to Polkinghorne
Arthur Peacocke
Pages: 109-115
Creatio Continua and Divine Action
John Polkinghorne
Pages: 101-108
Abstract
The notion of continuous creation requires for its validity a concept of God’s continuing interaction with the world. The thinking of Arthur Peacocke on these issues is surveyed. The act of creation involves a divine kenosis, in which agency is shared with creation itself. The unpredictability of physical process is interpreted as Indicating an openness of cosmic history, in which God acts through an input of information. This interpretation requires some form of argument from critical realism. Peacocke’s ideas are subjected to a critical discussion and comparison with those of other authors. A discussion of anti-reductionism discriminates between weak and strong versions. Peacocke holds to the former but arguments are presented in favour of the latter.
Contemporary Perspectives on Chance, Providence and Free Will - A critique of some modern authors
Jonathan Doye
Ian Goldby
Christina Line
Stephen Lloyd
Paul Shellard
David Tricker
Pages: 117-139
Abstract
We discuss the implications of modern science for the doctrine of providence by examining the writings of the late Donald MacKay, Arthur Peacocke, and John PoIkinghome. We summarise their views on the Origin of human freedom, the nature of divine action and the relationship of God to his creation. We endeavour to weigh the scientific merits and biblical compatibility of these views.
Genesis 1-2 and Recent Studies of Ancient Texts
Richard S. Hess
Pages: 141-149
Abstract
This essay surveys recent applications of ancient Near Eastern philology and literary study to the interpretation of the first two chapters of the Bible. It considers the significance of the seven days of creation and the reason for two accounts of creation. It examines a variety of expressions including: formless and empty, Image of God, Sabbath, Adam and Eden. The results of recent comparative research provide a rationale for the structure and organisation of Genesis 1-2 as well as new significance to the meaning and antiquity of many of its key expressions. At the same time the study touches upon some of the wealth of ancient Near Eastern literature available for the interpretation of the Bible.
The Eruption of Santorini and the Date and Historicity of Joseph
Colin J. Humphreys
Robert S. White
Pages: 151-162
Abstract
We suggest that a cataclysmic eruption of Santorini in the 17th century BC was responsible for major famines in Egypt and the surrounding area recorded in Old Testament writings in the account of Joseph, and we give arguments for the historicity of this account. Evidence of climatic disturbances in the northern hemisphere from tree-ring widths and of a huge acidity spike in ice cores from Greenland are consistent with widespread climatic modification at this time. We suggest that the famines occurred during the period of the Hyksos pharaohs of the Fifteenth Dynasty in Egypt, probably during the reign of King Khyan, thus providing a date for this pharaoh, and also for the Old Testament patriarch Joseph. If our arguments are accepted, the eruption of Santorini, for which we take the best date to be 1628 BC, provides an absolute chronological marker for both ancient Egyptian and ancient Hebrew chronology.
A Response to Tipler’s Omega-Point Theory
W. R. Stoeger
G. F. R. Ellis
Pages: 163-172
Abstract
Frank J. Tipler’s Omega-Point Theory claims to be a purely scientific theory which adequately accounts for the existence of an evolving personal God who possesses traditional divine attributes and in virtue of whom we enjoy free will, personal immortality, the prospect of resurrection from the dead, and the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. among other things. Here we present a critique of that theory, concentrating on its principal flaws, which are philosophical, not scientific. They include arbitrarily endowing an abstract geometrical construction (the causal boundary)–which may or may not eventually come into existence–with personal and divine characteristics (through a misuse of language), failing to acknowledge the limitations of physics, and making unwarranted assumptions concerning the character and necessity of life in the universe.
Correspondence
(Letter)
John Polkinghorne
Pages: 173-173
Book reviews
A Guide to Science and Belief
Michael Poole (Michael Walker)
Pages: 175-175
Designer Universe
John Wright (John Bausor)
Pages: 175-176
In the Beginning: the birth of the living universe
John Gribbin (John Bausor)
Pages: 176-178
Mind Fields. Reflections on the Science of Mind and Brain
Malcolm Jeeves (D. A. Booth)
Pages: 178-179
Christian Doctrine in the Light of Michael Polanyi’s Theory of Personal Knowledge
Joan Crewdson (John Polkinghorne)
Pages: 179-179
The Darwin Legend
James Moore (V. Paul Marston)
Pages: 179-181
Kanzi–The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind
Sue Savage (Victor Pearce)
Pages: 182-183
The Origin of the Universe
John D. Barrow (Robert Boyd
Pages: 183-184
The Last Three Minutes
Paul Davies (Robert Boyd)
Pages: 183-184
Quarks, Chaos and Christianity. Questions to Science and Religion
John C. Polkinghorne (Oliver Barclay)
Pages: 184-185
The Genetic Revolution
Patrick Dixon (Ernest Lucas)
Pages: 185-187
Emotion and Spirit
Neville Symington (Michael W. Elfred)
Pages: 187-188
How to think about the Earth: Philosophical and theological models for ecology
Stephen R. L. Clark (Lawrence Osborn)
Pages: 188-189
The Gene Wars. Science, Politics and the Human Genome
Robert Cook-Deegan (V. Kleinwächter)
Pages: 189-190
The Psychology of Religious Knowing
Fraser Watts and Mark Williams (Michael W. Elfred)
Pages: 190-191
The language of the genes
Steve Jones (Caroline Berry)
Pages: 191-192
The Creative Cosmos: A Unified Science of Matter, Life and Mind
Ervin Laszlo (Steve Bishop)
Pages: 191-192