W
e navigate in a world where science and faith seldom mingle, offering two kinds of knowl- edge and two widely different sets of questions. Some pit one against the other, as in school board debates across the country, revealing deepening conflict about the theory of evolution and belief in God. Such faith and science clashes suggest the two can’t be made to align, and that neither has anything to contribute to the other. Yet it was a school board battle 30 miles east of Get-
tysburg, Pa., that brought theologian Leonard Hummel and scientist Steve James together. Hummel, a professor at the Lutheran Theological Semi- nary at Gettysburg, maintains that pastoral leaders need to know more about science and the scientific world to help people make sense of the world as it is and God’s role in it. James, a scientist at Gettysburg College, believes that understanding cancer isn’t complete without asking such human questions as “What does it mean?”; “Who is God?”; and “What is love?” In 2005, the Dover, Pa., school board went to federal court over a conflict about their order to teach “intelligent design” in biology classrooms. Members of the seminary faculty were engaged in the controversy, opposing the cur- riculum. In early 2006, the seminary asked Hummel, who teaches pastoral care, to address the issue in a forum with the federal judge in the case, John E. Jones III. Hummel invited James to join him at the lectern to help explain the science of evolution to an audience of non-scientist church leaders.
Since then, Hummel and James have guest-lectured in each other’s courses, intermingled seminarians and college science students, and team-taught other courses at their schools. They’re even co-authoring a book. When the two have worked together, James said, “my students have been intrigued by Leonard’s example, and some were surprised to find a seminary professor who embraces science, and especially evolution, as valid ways of understanding the world. Leonard’s example has put to rest stereotypes that some of my students carry with them.” James, a true scientist who shares the empirical assump- tions of his discipline, said he doesn’t see a “conflict between trying to understand the world as it is from a scien- tific viewpoint, and the world envisioned as it could be or ought to be from a faith perspective.” Earlier this year, James and Hummel co-taught a Janu- ary term course at the seminary focused on the Dover case and intelligent design, evolution and the scientific method
Spangler is executive assistant to the president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.).
The scientist and the theologian
Together, two ELCA teachers study God, evolution, faith and cancer By John R. Spangler
of inquiry. Students explored the way the Bible speaks of creation of the world. They unpacked the way science answers such questions empirically: What happened? When did it happen and how did it come about? Faith, they heard, drives a different set of questions: What is the meaning of the world? Who is the creator? Why are we here? For what do we hope? What does it mean to call upon a loving God in a fallen world? The course was no small help for those who teach the faith to young adults who are discovering the empirical methods of science and may elsewhere receive mixed signals about the compatibility of the science they learn in school and the faith nurtured in church and home. Senior seminarian Rebecca Horn appreciated hearing Hummel say “that Darwinian evolution is compatible with a faith perspective, in that evolution is the most productive form of explanation for all of science and it is theologically consistent.”
“While I have always felt that evolution is compatible with the creation stories of the Bible, it was refreshing to have a professor of theology and a professor of science agree and provide a reason,” she added.
Cancer: A shared struggle
Cancer is near the top of the list of things that strike terror in the lives of human beings. We know the disease travels the human genome and seems to appear in our lives and our loved ones lives by chance.
James, a molecular biologist, leads a journey at Get-
tysburg College into the mysterious “black box” of cancer, seemingly based on random occurrences initiated in the
16 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52