A
DINOSAUR IN THE SANCTUARY
Galen Kuhens
March 1, 2005
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Chapter 1 - THE DILEMMA
Chapter 2 - EARLY LIFE ON EARTH ACCORDING TO GENESIS
Chapter 3 - EARLY LIFE ON EARTH ACCORDING TO FOSSIL RECORDS
Chapter 4 - THE HEBREW SCRIPTURE’S RESPONSE TO GENESIS
1-11
Chapter 5 - APOSTLE PAUL GETS INVOLVED
Chapter 6 - ST. AUGUSTINE RAISES THE ISSUE TO A HIGH PITCH
Chapter 7 - WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
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Foreword
Is there a dinosaur in your church sanctuary? Would you recognize one if there
were? I mean really recognize it, accept its real presence? Or could you look
right at it and deny its presence or deny that its presence really mattered?
We have come to recognize that dinosaurs were once real living creatures on
earth. Some may look at the evidence and deny its reality but not many go so
far. Many more will look at the evidence, find it interesting and leave it at
that. Many theologians will accept that dinosaurs were a reality in the early
chapters of the earth’s history. My question is, will these same theologians
allow the dinosaurs to have a real presence in their discussions on dogmatics?
What was the cause of death in this world of ours? Did Adam and Eve (or early
humans) fall from a life in paradise where there was no danger, disease, pain
or death so long as the fruit of one tree was avoided? Did the first human male
and female even know there was a God that they might disobey or who’s authority
they might try to usurp? What was the reality of life for that first man and
woman? How and when did they (or their descendants) become aware of the presence
of good and evil, of God, the nature of grace, etc.?
There are some pretty big areas that cry out for our attention as we contemplate
our beginnings, our relationships with God and the world around us, our understandings
of the nature of good and evil. For a number of millennia we, of the Judeo/Christian
following, have accepted the early chapters of Genesis as descriptive of the
beginning of things on Earth. More recently the dinosaurs, and other fossils,
have told of pages of the beginnings that we have never read. We have, more
or less, come to recognize that dinosaur fossils are there, they are unique
and they are real. But in terms of coming to an understanding of how they affect
our long-held beliefs of our own beginnings we tiptoe around them, we draw drapes
around them, we pretend that they are not there. We have dinosaurs in our sanctuary
but we tell ourselves that it does not matter, we don’t allow ourselves to contemplate
their presence.
As I write I would like to flesh out some of these problems. I would like to
draw attention to at least some of the more obvious places where the evidence
from the studies of evolution bump up against some of our dearly held dogmatics,
our widely held world-views. I invite you to walk with me on the journey.
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Chapter 1
THE DILEMMA
It is a difficult thing to have a dinosaur in the sanctuary. It takes up a lot
of space; the space becomes quite unusable. It would be so nice if we could
just sneak it out in the middle of the night but many people have become quite
attached to the thing; they have built their lives making room for it; they
would be quite lost if it were to be gone some day.
It isn’t simple to let the dinosaur stay either. All sorts of questions come
up. Where did it come from? How did it get in here? Can we find a proper space
for it in a house of worship? No one seems to be quite sure of the answers or
if the typical answers really make sense.
Who can blame them? Having a dinosaur in the sanctuary is serious business.
Even if it is a friendly dinosaur it is still a huge beast. If it moved, even
in a friendly gesture, those nearby could get trampled on. If it didn’t like
being disturbed it would be dangerous indeed to provoke the beast.
Questions about the presence of dinosaurs in the development of life on earth
can carry a lot of weight as well. Many people have become quite attached to
their particular ideas of how there came to be life on this earth; they have
built their lives making room for their version of the story. Many people link
the presence of good and evil to their stories of how life, human life in particular,
came into being on this earth. It can get pretty nasty when we start poking
around in the mysteries of it all.
Yes, the questions come from what happened long, long ago in anyone’s book but
how one interprets that old story will also guide them in how they interpret
what happens in these times as well. There are deep-rooted beliefs at stake;
they are not to be taken lightly.
Shall we begin?
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Chapter 2
EARLY LIFE ON EARTH ACCORDING TO GENESIS
The Genesis account is an older written account about our beginnings than the
written accounts of our fossil records so let us begin with the Genesis account.
It is generally accepted that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are prehistory,
that is, they tell of things that happened before human beings began writing
records of those happenings. In fact they tell of things that happened before
human beings even learned to write. The first that the Hebrew people appeared
in written records of other countries would have been around the time of Abraham;
about 4,000 years ago. Most Bible scholars put the first writing of the Hebrew
Scriptures at the time of the Kingdom of Israel, the time of David or Solomon,
about 3,000 years ago. The stories could well have been passed along by oral
tradition for many years but we are beginning to get some time frames established;
even the stories of Abraham were nearly 1,000 years old before they were written
in the Genesis account. Other nations were aware for those 1,000 years that
there were "Hebrew" people around without writing the "Hebrew"
stories.
We are aware that many cultures around the world tell their stories of how things
came to be in the beginning. It is very probable that as the Hebrews came to
establish themselves as a people, they, too, would have their stories to give
meaning about who they were and how they came to be. The history of the earth,
the history of life on earth, would so pre-date them they could not have been
expected to know about the times of the dinosaurs and the times before the dinosaurs.
The Hebrew people developed their stories giving only a short time frame between
the very beginning and the arrival of the first humans. The stories they developed
are those found in those opening chapters of Genesis.
Even in the Genesis account we have two stories. The older of the two is found
in the second chapter of Genesis and took shape largely around 3,000 years ago.
The newer story, in the first chapter of Genesis, was written after the return
from the exile in Babylonia, about 2,500 years ago. As the Hebrew people returned
from exile they considered the old story and found that it did not speak to
the reality of their day. Their experience cried for a different interpretation
of God’s relationship with creation - a relationship that could be considered
"good". In an era of new insights about the relationship between God
and creation they were unashamed about making changes in their stories to reflect
these new insights.
This first chapter of Genesis seems to have had little effect on New Testament
thought. In this story the humans come after the rest of the living things,
male and female together, and everything is found by the creator to be good.
Most of the references made to creation in the New Testament seem to pick up
on the story from the second and third chapters of Genesis and not everything
is found "to be good". In this account the man comes first, then all
the other creatures, and then the woman. Things start out being very good -
all of the concerns of life are provided for by the creator - according to some
interpretations there is no death until the humans do a stupid thing and disobey
their creator. Then, because of that one act of disobedience, all generations
to follow are destined to sin and death.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century
there was a strong movement within Christian circles to believe that the Bible
was to be taken as inerrant and infallible. Since Genesis, chapters 5 and 11,
gives the ages af all the fathers when their first sons were born, we can add
these ages together and find that Adam came into being one thousand nine hundred
and forty nine years before Abram (Abraham) was born. If we can accept that
Abraham lived about four thousand years ago (about 2,000 BCE) then Adam, the
first human, would have to have lived about six thousand years ago. According
to Genesis, chapter 2, this human was the first form of life to be found on
earth. All life then could be found only within these last six thousand years
if Genesis chapters 5 and 11 are without error. Many Christians no longer hold
to this six thousand year timetable, but less than one hundred years ago many
did accept that timetable and some still do. Many people, yet today, believe
that the hundreds of feet of limestone and sandstone in our northeastern Iowa
bluffs can be explained by "the flood".
These dates give very serious problems when compared with the geological records
and anthropological studies which indicate that living things have been on earth
for over a billion years, human beings for over a million years. The credibility
of the geological records is being accepted by more and more of the people in
this day. At the same time we need to be aware that we have gone through some
major shifts in our understanding of the nature of creation.
Before Darwin began laying the groundwork for understanding the concept of evolution,
before we started discovering (and/or recognizing) dinosaur bones, we had little
reason to question just how long living things had been on earth. We are not
in a position to criticize the writers of Genesis, St. Paul, St. Augustine,
or Martin Luther for not knowing the true age of the earth. They were living
according to the only story they had. In their day they knew nothing of dinosaurs,
or, at least, of the times in which the dinosaurs lived. They had no other yardstick
but Genesis by which to measure the age of creation.
Few of us like living with uncertainty. Most of us desire an understanding of
what is going on around us and how things came to be. There is an awakening
in all of us that stirs us to find reasons for things which are unknown. If
there are those around us with a sense of knowing the unknown - we listen. If
their counsel is good we come to trust them. It seemed to the early Hebrews
that Moses and the prophets came with good counsel; at least in time their followers
came to value that counsel. The story became well known, it became a part of
their understanding of life. It gave them a sense of certainty as they faced
an uncertain life; their was a reason for things happening as they did and the
story was a part of that certainty.
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Chapter 3
EARLY LIFE ON EARTH ACCORDING TO FOSSIL RECORDS
Fossil records tell us that there was life on earth more than a billion years
ago. Bacteria, algae, worms, sponges and corals would have been around for over
a billion years. Fish (including sharks), land plants, insects, amphibians,
reptiles (including dinosaurs) and birds were added over 100 million years ago.
Dinosaurs died out over 60 million years ago, mammals (including saber-toothed
tigers and mastodons) and primates (monkeys) were added between 100 million
and 10 million years ago. The last ice age began about 7 million years ago,
became extensive about 2 million years ago and ended between 10,000 and 20,000
years ago.1
Humans arrived in primitive forms between one and two million years ago and
began to use simple stone tools (Old Stone Age) about one million years ago.
It is not in fossil records but estimations about the beginning of speech range
from 800,000 to 60,000 years ago. What we would consider "modern"
humans arrived on the scene over 50,000 years ago, left evidence of art work
over 20,000 years ago, started farming about 10,000 years ago, and moved into
villages over 7,000 years ago. (Incidentally, the saber-toothed tigers and mastodons
became extinct about 10,000 years ago.) The Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia
began about 5,500 years ago, the Egyptian civilization about 5,100 years ago.
According to fossil records, humans (one of the last of the species to arrive)
had been around over 1 million years, modern humans over 40,000 years, before
the Judeo-Christian God was able to catch the attention of Abraham, the father
of the Hebrew nation. According to the fossil records the Hebrew nation completely
misjudged the time frame between creation and their own arrival on the scene.
Those records also suggest a remarkably different neighborhood into which Adam
and Eve arrived than the one portrayed in Genesis chapter 2. Instead of Adam
being all alone and lonely in a garden paradise he would have been a new-comer
into a neighborhood of saber-toothed tigers, mastodons and lots of other creatures
both nasty and good. Death would also have been there to greet the human beings
just as it had greeted all the other living species. Death had been a part of
the natural order of things long before humans had the capability to understand
speech.
These records do indicate that these humans were unique. Their brain capacity
and their capacity for speech allowed them to develop beyond the potential for
other creatures. Even though we are unique we may not recognize all the potential
that other creatures have. (Do we really recognize how much other animals are
able to plan ahead, to show emotion, to be in awe of the universe around them?
As I wander our bluff-top terrain I discover that the deer have a well-worn
path to an overlook. Are they in as much awe of the splendor of creation as
I in that location?) If other creatures have a spiritual nature we have been
unable to document it. So then we ask: are human beings to be kept apart as
a "special creation" or are we simply unique creatures within the
process of evolution? Do human beings know enough about the other species in
the neighborhood to make this judgment?
1 The main timeline resource was World Book, Macintosh Edition, Version 1.0,
1998.
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Chapter 4
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURE’S RESPONSE TO GENESIS 1-11
The names of Adam and Eve are prominent in the opening chapters of the Book
of Genesis; the only other reference to them in our Old Testament is the inclusion
of Adam in the genealogy of the Hebrew people in 1 Chronicles 1:1. Eden gets
more attention, Isaiah makes a reference in 51:3 "For the LORD will comfort
Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like
Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found
in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song." Ezekiel refers to Eden three
times (Ez 28:13, Ez 31:9 and 18) and Joel once (Joel 2:3). All references are
to the glory of Eden, no references are made to the problems that came up in
that setting.
The Hebrew Scriptures see Adam and Eve important as a part of the founding story.
Beyond that the oldest story of creation seems to hold little significance in
the Hebrew Scriptures. Later on the Hebrews write a new story of creation, Genesis
1. This story prefaces the Adam and Eve story, is on a grander scale and in
this story everything is recognized as good.
The creation story presented in Genesis 1 seems far more significant as an image
to the writers of the Hebrew Scripture. It is generally considered a post-exilic
story. The "it was good" theme to this story would be much more in
keeping with the awe and wonder towards the creation found in other writings
of the Hebrew Scripture (Deuteronomy 4:32; Psalm 148:3-5; Isaiah 40:26; 41:20;
42:5; 43:1; 45:8, 12, 18; Malachi 2:10).
The problems of creation are more connected to the occasion of the flood, the
other major story coming out of the pre-history section of Genesis. A strong
reference is made in Genesis 6:7 (So the LORD said, "I will blot out from
the earth the human beings I have created -- people together with animals and
creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.");
Isaiah 54:9 (This is like the days of Noah to me; Just as I swore that the waters
of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not
be angry with you and will not rebuke you.); Ezekiel 14:12-14 (12 The word of
the Lord came to me: 13 Mortal, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly,
and I stretch out my hand against it, and break its staff of bread and send
famine upon it, and cut off from human beings and animals, 14 even if Noah,
Daniel, and Job, these three, were in it, they would save only their own lives
by their righteousness, says the Lord GOD.).
There seems to be little concern in the Hebrew Scriptures that all of Adam’s
descendants suffer for Adam’s sin. The concern is more connected with the relationship
between God and the people of a particular time or the relationship between
God and a particular king. It is certainly recognized that the people, and most
kings, have trouble maintaining that good relationship; yet each generation
seems to be held responsible only for their own relationship. 2 Kings chapter
23 implies that the keeping of the Passover festival was dropped during the
time of David but that brought no blame on David. The books of the law were
even unknown for a time until they were rediscovered in Josiah’s reign; yet
there were periods when kings such as Hezekiah found favor without even knowing
of the books of the law. People were judged according to the way in which they
responded to the Lord or to his prophets in their own day.
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Chapter 5
APOSTLE PAUL GETS INVOLVED
If the Hebrew Scriptures chose not to make an issue over the sin of Adam, the
Apostle Paul chose to do so. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter
15, he writes in verse 21, "For since death came through a human being,
the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all
die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ." Later on he writes in
Romans chapter 5, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one
man, and death came through sin, so death spread to all because all have
sinned. ... 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those
whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one
who was to come." In Paul’s attempts to define Jesus, he does so by making
Jesus antithetical to Adam. According to Paul, Adam brought sin into the world,
Jesus frees us from sin; Adam brought death into the world, Jesus brought life.
It seems fair to say that, according to Paul, before Adam there was no sin,
no death in the world. We don’t know how literal Adam was for the Apostle Paul
nor how literal was the sin and death that Adam brought into the world. Yet
if Adam is to be the antithesis to Jesus, it is important that Adam would have
to be taken quite literally.
Paul had little reason not to take the first 11 chapters of Genesis quite literally.
They weren’t talking about fossil records in those days; no one would have suggested
that creation began billions of years before his own time. He had little reason
to doubt that creation had begun only about 4,000 years earlier. Paul had little
reason to believe that the first human had no concept of language and thus no
concept of sin. Paul had little reason to believe that living creatures had
been dying for millions and billions of years (even whole species going into
extinction) before the first human even appeared.
Today we have many reasons to believe that those first 11 chapters of Genesis
cannot be taken literally. We are aware that it took more than six days for
creation to take place. We have been convinced that the earth is not the center
of the universe. We are aware that it took more time than the duration of the
voyage of Noah’s ark to form the hundreds of feet of limestone under our feet.
Even though we now know these parts of the story are not literal, it is interesting
that many hold as literal that sin and death entered the world through one person
and that all remain liable for the sin of that one person. If humans existed
for hundreds of thousands of years without language, without knowing what sin
was, how could they sin? Can a person be a sinner before having any idea of
what sin is? If you do not know what a heifer is can you get into trouble if
you bring something other than a heifer into the barn?
With no disrespect for Paul, nor for the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11, what Paul
sets up as a reference point was not historically accurate. Whether or not Paul
was trying to be literal about comparing Jesus with Adam, or whether he was
simply trying to carry on the picturesque language of Genesis, we can’t be sure.
What we do know for sure is that many readers of Paul have taken him, and continue
to take him and his thoughts, very literally indeed.
If Jesus was being defined as the antithesis to Adam and if we now find that
there was no such Adam, how then do we define Jesus? The idea of the depravity
of humankind attributed to the action of Adam (and Eve) does seem to come from
the writings of Paul after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. If the
first chapter of Genesis (where all is created good) were to define the human
condition in the eyes of the creator, what then would be the role of Jesus?
What was the nature of human beings as they began to relate to God in those
formative years? When did "original sin" begin to define the nature
of human beings in their relationship with God?
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Chapter 6
ST. AUGUSTINE RAISES THE ISSUE TO A HIGH PITCH
If the Apostle Paul chose to make an issue of the sin of Adam, Saint Augustine
became obsessed by it. "I say ... that little ones who are born in a place
where they could not be helped by Christ’s baptism and are in that situation,
that is, of having died without the bath of regeneration, because they could
not be anything else. ... It is right then, that they are not admitted into
the kingdom of heaven because of that condemnation that pervades the whole mass
of humanity, even though they not only were not, but also could not be Christian."
1 "The aim, then, of this book is to distinguish, ... the goodness
of marriage from the evil of carnal desire on account of which a human being
who is born through it contracts original sin." 2 "Why then did (Adam
and Eve) experience shame because of those members after their sin, except there
arose in them that indecent motion which would certainly not be a part of marriage,
if human beings had not sinned?" 3 "Only marital intercourse was not
present in that marriage (of Joseph and Mary), because it could not occur in
sinful flesh without that concupiscence of the flesh which results from sin.
He (Jesus) who was going to be without sin, not in sinful flesh, but in the
likeness of sinful flesh, chose to be conceived without that concupiscence.
He did this in order to teach that all flesh which is born from intercourse
is sinful flesh, since only that flesh which was not born from it was not sinful
flesh." 4
It would seem that Saint Augustine’s early concupiscence of the flesh was weighing
heavily on his conscience. Original sin and the manner in which it was transmitted
was certainly at the center of his rage at the Pelagians, Julian of Eclanum
in particular. Thus through Augustine’s fastidious (as well as dubious) interpretations
of Paul in his letter to the Romans, Genesis 2 and 3 takes his central position
in describing the relationship between human beings and their creator. Unfortunately,
Saint Augustine’s interpretation has held sway throughout the church for nearly
1600 years.
1 The Works of Saint Augustine, Part I - Books, Vol 23, Answer to the Pelagians,
Nature and Grace, 8,9. John E. Rotelle, ed. New City Press, Hyde Park, NY. 1997,
pp 228-229.
2 The Works of Saint Augustine, Part I - Books, Vol 24, Answer to the Pelagians
II, Marriage and Desire, Book I, 1,1. John E. Rotelle, ed. New City Press, Hyde
Park, NY. 1998, p 28.
3 See above, Book I, 5,6. p 31. 4 See above, Book I,12. p 37.
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Chapter
7
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
We do have new information available to us today through which we can gain new
insights. St. Paul, St. Augustine and the author(s) of Genesis, were unaware
of the whole geological record that has helped clarify some of the issues involved
in our interpretation of Scriptures. Even before then, the writers of Genesis
1 were noting and adding new insights, including the goodness of creation, 500
years or so after Genesis 2 and 3 were written. Isaiah and Micah were willing
to suggest that the Levitical Code need not always have the last word about
how a people should understand the "Word of the Lord". Perhaps it
is time to let God continue to address his people.
Thanks to Galileo, we no longer take Genesis 1 as the latest word in astronomy.
Perhaps we need to assert that Genesis 2 and 3 may not be the latest word about
why human beings are always getting into so much trouble in this life and about
why people and other earthly creatures die.
Earlier chapters indicated the discrepancies between the biblical account of
creation and the account given to us through many fields of science but certainly
through the fossil records. It must be recognized that many who hold to the
biblical accounts do not insist that the creation story of Genesis took place
only 6,000 years ago. It must also be recognized that many hold strongly to
the belief that Genesis 2 and 3 tell us how sin and death came to be in this
world and that this story describes the role of Jesus in overcoming the conditions
we inherited from Adam and Eve. Even the Discovery Channel tells us over and
over about the discovery of what simply must be Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat, giving
support to the belief that the whole human population dropped back to one family
just a few generations before Abraham or about 4,300 years ago.
On the other hand we hear that human beings have been around for over a million
years. Speech did not develop until much later and abstract issues such as disobedience
and sin would have to have developed even much later than that. It is most likely
that humans had been dying for hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years
before they had any concept of disobedience or sin; and that is only for humans.
I believe that many theologians like to hold that there was no death at all
until humans sinned. Then it becomes difficult to explain how dinosaurs came
into existence for millions of years, and then went into extinction for millions
of years, and all of that before human beings were around to introduce sinning.
If the God of the Judeo/Christian faiths only starting establishing contact
with his people (beginning with Abraham) about 4,000 years ago, when did sin
begin? Death certainly began millions, or billions, of years ago.
Many Christians hold to a special creation of human beings, holding them aloof
from the rest of the animal kingdom. Then we have the task of deciding the stage
of development at which we became "human". Perhaps we have to let
go of our claim to a special creation. Perhaps we need to recognize that we
are a part of the whole process of creation. As a part of that creation we can
recognize that we have particular gifts, especially in the area of speech and
language capabilities. Particular gifts in one or more areas do not necessarily
make us "a special creation". Many species have come and gone over
the years since life first appeared on earth. Who is to say but that life may
continue on earth after humans cease to be. It would certainly be unpopular
with those Christians awaiting Armageddon.
If we are simply late arrivals in a very lengthy process of development of life
on earth, if the disobedience of Adam and Eve is not literally true, if we are
not by nature sinful and unclean, how are we to understand the mess in which
we find the world around us? If the dinosaurs, the mastodons, the saber-toothed
tigers had a chance to reflect on their conditions before they became extinct,
they, too, must have wondered how the world got itself in the mess that it was
in. Perhaps we humans need to recognize that the world got along without us
before they met us and they could get along without us now - that the world
does not revolve around our being here.
While humans remain, we Christians could do well to reconsider some of our long-held
assumptions.
1. Original Sin. Some Christians seem to be more concerned than others about
the doctrine of original sin but most of us seem to have a sense of a fall from
paradise. For those who were born into religious communities which held a deep
concern about original sin, escape will take concerted effort. Our dinosaur
friends, who went into extinction before we arrived, can tell us that it was
no paradise on this earth into which we came. Our early friends, the saber-toothed
tigers, the mammoths, the mastodons, will also tell us that we arrived into
a world of stark reality. It was a rough and tough world into which we human
beings arrived.
When human beings first arrived on the scene, we were still without a language,
we knew no more about the presence of God than any of the other animals. We
developed a more sophisticated communication system, we developed a language,
we began thinking about good and bad, we began to become aware of God.
It was not that we set out to become bad. The first humans had no thought of
rebellion. They had no language to carry the thoughts of rebellion. They had
no awareness of against whom, or against what they might rebel. If "Adam"
was "disobedient" it would have been later in human development and
would have made the involvement of all of humankind questionable. We probably
do have some basic survival instincts to overcome. When humans came to the stage
of development such that defending our territorial rights and our cache of food
came into conflict with community development, it was important that we adapt
to a new style of life. Was it sinful that we had these inner conflicts or was
it just the struggle to adjust to living like civilized people? It is true that
with the development of language, we were better able to make future plans,
and that could mean that we could develop some of our old anti-social techniques
to a degree that could, indeed, be seen as evil. The "Old Adam" within
us may be an awareness that we carry some old animal instincts around which
are not always conducive to civil community behavior - not necessarily evil
but if we design to use these instincts to harm others then we can judge that
activity to be evil.
Rather than an initial rebellion against God, it would seem that we were desiring
to learn how to live in community, to learn what was good and what was bad,
what was right and what was wrong. We were becoming aware of a stirring within
(our souls, if you will) that was willing to lead us to recognize the value
of community, to recognize a source of wisdom and understanding that was beyond
ourselves. Instead of rebellion against God, there was a search, an openness
towards a God that could guide us. Not all of the time, not among all individuals,
but yet there has been this driving force towards spirituality among the human
species almost from the beginning.
2. Atonement. Those of us within the Judeo/Christian heritage have often found
comfort in having a visible sacrifice to find our way past a feeling of guilt
due to wrong judgments we have made or wrong actions we have taken. The Jewish
people in their temple worship had provisions for making animal sacrifices or
grain offerings in atonement for their sins.
There is value in being able to give of something that has value in your eyes
when you have done something stupid and you would like to get beyond remorse
and get back into an active life once more. It is something else when those
in authority are angry at you for what you have done and convince you that the
only way that you can get back into their favor again is to make a sacrificial
offering to them. It is still something else again when those authorities can
convince you that God is angry at you and, without some offer of sacrifice,
you will be punished in ways beyond all imagination. In these situations, the
value of being able to offer a sacrifice is being offset by the introduction
of an appeasement of anger that may or may not be real. The potential for abuse
by those in authority is real.
The introduction of anger, whether on the part of the authorities or on the
part of the God whom they represent, sets a whole new tone to this interaction
between the individual and the source of life-direction that the individual
is trying to resource. Instead of trying to get on with life, the individuals
are faced with the concern of whether or not they have any hope of access into
this life which they seek. Will their sacrifice be sufficient to appease the
anger of this God? Was their mistake really such that it deserved this reaction
of anger? Were humans really so bad that God could only be appeased by the horrible
death of an only Son who had lived a life free of sin? Escaping punishment is
a whole different way of life than one dedicated to growing in relationship.
The threat of anger and retaliation has long been used as a device for control.
Kings have used it for control over their own or neighboring kingdoms, priests
have used it over their communities of worship, spouses have used it against
each other, parents have used it against children. How often has not an overwrought
mother (father) cried out to the children, "You just wait until your father
(mother) gets home!"Is not this similar to the overwrought minister (such
as Saint Augustine) trying to get authoritative control by crying out, "You
just wait until God gets hold of you!?"
God has been there through the centuries or through the millennia to inspire
us, to guide us, to live among us. I am not convinced that wrath is the key
personality trait of the God who brought us into being and shows signs
of caring. I see wrath as a sign of a being who is out of control or sees danger
of losing control. Why should God show signs of wrath? Could that wrath be mainly
in the eyes of the religious authorities? How might we learn the mind of God?
3. Christology. If the role of Jesus was not to appease the wrath of an angry
God, whether for the sin of Adam and Eve or for our own sins, what was his proper
role? St Paul had accepted and pushed the idea that Jesus was necessary to undo
the trap into which we all are caught through Adam. But then St. Paul had little
reason to doubt the veracity of the story of Genesis 2 and 3. According
to biblical reports, Paul pushed this role of Adam to new heights which, in
turn, became pivotal in developing the christology of Jesus the Christ.
Was the death of Jesus to appease God for the wrongs of humankind or was it
to show that one could face the anger of petty authorities and know that one
was still bound in God’s love and had the potential of resurrection for even
greater things beyond the pale of human anger? Was the life of Jesus to show
the immanence of God’s love, to show a way of discovering that immanence? Examples
of the presence of God’s love abound in the written word of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus helps us experience this love and calls us to share that powerful presence
of the love of God. The role of this study is not to be exhaustive in developing
a new Christology but to get the thoughts flowing.
4. Eschatology. Can we continue to be confident that the whole of creation revolves
around the presence of human beings? In scripture we hear that Adam is the first
of the creatures; we hear that all creation groans under the weight of human
sin; we hear little of nature’s role in the end times. We know that the sun
will not last forever in its present state. As it continues in its life cycle,
there will come a time in which life will not be possible on earth. On the other
hand, the sun may well outlast the presence of human life. As we look at the
history of life on earth, we note that other organisms lived on earth long before
human life arrived; we know that many organisms that once lived on earth have
become extinct. Is it possible that human beings could become extinct and life
on earth could continue without us; new species developing and taking our place?
Would this automatically deny the existence of eternal life in union with God?
We seem to have come to terms with the realization that the Earth is not the
center of the universe. We can put the sun in the center of our solar system
and allow for the solar system to be located near the edge of the Milky Way
Galaxy and still remain confident in our faith towards God. Can we also let
go of our claim to an initial paradise, lost because of sinful rebellion which
led to God’s wrath against humankind? Can our faith in God grow because we can
see the forward steps that have carried humankind from those early days before
language allowed us to grow in knowledge and understanding? Can we see ourselves
letting go even more of our animal instincts as we grow in God’s love and interact
in our human community with a deeper commitment, as we live in the promise of
God’s love? Perhaps we are near the point wherein we can conceive of human life
being lived out in a whole new paradigm. The transition will be a dangerous
time. Fear of change will cause some to strike out in anger, provoking violence,
perhaps even in God’s name. Yet, if we follow Jesus, we may also see a resurrection
into a life that more fully lives out the potential that God has placed before
us and to which God invites us. Perhaps we have delayed our own evolution long
enough. Perhaps it is time to continue to evolve into what God invites
us to become.
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