May 2009 – What do the numbers 2009 and 2009 have in common?

2009 and 2009? What do these numbers have in common. Well, interestingly enough there are two celebrations occurring this year. It is five hundred years since the birth of John Calvin in Noyon Picardy. It is also two hundred years since the birth of Charles Darwin. One might think that these two august personages represent polar opposites – Calvin the rigid adherence to dogma over common sense, and Darwin the brave triumph of scientific inquiry over outdated superstitions. As you probably know, gentle reader, things are not that simple.

The key work that Calvin remains known for (apart from his biblical commentaries) is of course The Institutes of the Christian Religion, a work that grew from what was essentially a discussion of the Apostle’s creed, the ten commandments, and the sacraments in 1536 to a sprawling biblical theology in the last edition of 1559. Book One starts with how we know about God the creator. Calvin carefully explains how knowledge about God is “… displayed in the fabric and constant government of the universe” (Book I ch. V) but that Scripture is required “…as a guide and teacher in coming to God as creator” (Book 1 ch. VI). Of course, this “two book” theology was hardly new – Aquinas and Augustine had said more or less the same thing, and all three believed that this concept was firmly embedded in the Scriptures themselves. After all, did not the Psalmist say, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” The fact that the three tier concept of the universe that the Psalmist clearly accepted (e.g. the idea of a dome/firmament over the earth) had been disproved by the time of Calvin did not dent his conclusions about the place of natural theology and the revelation of Scripture.

In our own time we see the battle of these two books. Standing in one corner is our first group of fundamentalists, the self-styled disciples of Charles Darwin. God is an unnecessary if not dangerous hypothesis, and the scientific method must logically lead to atheism. This is undoubtedly true as the scientific method assumes only natural causes, and therefore cannot consider any intervention by a supernatural creator. It is unfortunate that the logic is a little circular when this is used to prove the absence of a god.

In the other corner is our second group of fundamentalists. They believe that the Scriptures must be taken “literally” and therefore the earth is young and evolution cannot have occurred. It is all there in the Bible after all. However, in their defence, they have moved on from believing that the earth is flat and has corners, that there is a dome across the sky, that the sun moves across this dome, that the heart is the centre of thought – not the brain – and that the bowels are the centre of emotions. Whereas the Darwinist fundamentalists are trapped in the circularity of their view of the universe, these fundamentalists are trapped in their supposedly “literal” approach to the Bible. A Calvin redivivus would have had problems with both sets of fundamentalists.

In this issue of Stimulus we contribute to both celebrations. We have articles from Peter Matheson and Graham Redding about Calvin in New Zealand. After all, Otago was settled by Scottish Presbyterians fresh from the troubles of the Great Disruption in Scotland. Calvin and Knox were their old and new testaments so it should not be surprising that Calvin has influenced New Zealand in ways of which we are probably unaware.

Darwin is also acknowledged through Nicola Hoggard Creegan’s column about the vestiges of the trinity in creation. Dennis Gordon presents a review article on Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution by Denis Lamoureux. God does not need to have laboured inside creation like a navvy to make all that we see. He could have equally as well created a universe that would bring forth life “that was good” as part of its very nature.

So enjoy, gentle reader. We also run advertisements for conferences regarding Calvin and Darwin. You will probably need to consult both books at these events.

David Cashmore
for the editorial committee

Douglas Maclachlan
Publisher