tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57076644966475486622024-02-18T19:11:14.659-08:00Jacob's Well Book ClubFor the Jacob's Well Christian Church community, both members and visitors, a selection of good books. Look for them in your public library or local book store, read them, and tell us what you think!and Pastor Mary Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619602893036600178noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707664496647548662.post-14252591205424350842009-08-08T17:54:00.004-07:002012-03-23T23:49:11.997-07:00Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHuFdn1BB8BjNcALM3rNUbEMPz3iu-vipWrIBSmmVExAT4Vjb0wFYl3hU-hgTvWQpAMFT9Fd-pbwXig7r6MhRHbXvj6_pfDt38ePQ2JlYmcEPZnShbEz697a39KSGflmI5fSs_6NMj7Y/s1600-h/Darwins_Gift.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362567698931262850" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 291px; height: 292px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHuFdn1BB8BjNcALM3rNUbEMPz3iu-vipWrIBSmmVExAT4Vjb0wFYl3hU-hgTvWQpAMFT9Fd-pbwXig7r6MhRHbXvj6_pfDt38ePQ2JlYmcEPZnShbEz697a39KSGflmI5fSs_6NMj7Y/s320/Darwins_Gift.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Francisco J. Ayala. <em>Darwin's Gift to science and religion</em><br />Washington, D.C. : Joseph Henry Press, 2007.</span><br /></div><br /><div><em></em></div><div><span style="font-size:100%;">A full-page ad for Cokesbury (Sojourners, August 2009, Vol. 38, No. 8, Pg. 4) was headlined "Religon and Darwin: on the same page?" It reminded me of <em>Darwin's Gift</em>, a book I recently discovered at my local library. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;">It seems to me that Francisco Ayala is uniquely qualified to address the issue of perceived conflict between science and religion. A practicing Catholic and former Dominican priest, he is a biologist and a professor at U.C. Irvine with a research interest in evolutionary genetics. The negative reception Ayala's work has received from some members of the Christian religious community makes me question whether I misunderstood his argument entirely, or maybe I just saw what I wanted to see. Where some critics - but not all - make the claim that Ayala cannot be a Christian, I believe that he is, if not Christian as some might define the word, at least a believer in the Divine.<br /><br />The basic treatise of <em>Darwin's Gift</em> is that science and religion can not only coexist peacefully but can compliment one another. Ayala isn't the first to offer the suggestion that the two operate in different spheres but he makes the argument eloquently. He writes, "Science is a particular bunch of tools that have been conspicuously successful for understanding and manipulating the material universe. Religion is another bunch of tools, giving us hints of a mental or spiritual universe that transcends the material universe. (Page 179)"<br /><br />In this book, Ayala explains the basics of evolution in chapters covering natural selection, human evolution, and molecular biology, and he lays out the problems with so-called "Intelligent Design." He suggests that biological evolution explains "mistakes" in nature, birth defects being one example, because why would a good god cause a child to be born with a fatal or disfiguring defect? Ayala also writes:<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;">It is possible to believe that God created the world while also accepting that the planets, mountains, plants and animals came about, after the initial creation, by natural processes. In theological parlance, God may act through secondary causes. (Page 175)</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;">This is a book for adults but Ayala keeps the language simple enough that the reader doesn't have to be a biologist or a theologian to understand. His carefully thought out explanation of natural selection and human evolution are not a threat to my faith but an eloquent re-introduction to the elegance of biology and the unfolding of life as we now know it.</span>and Pastor Mary Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619602893036600178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707664496647548662.post-18236002164758872372009-07-23T17:49:00.003-07:002012-03-23T23:48:52.083-07:00The Misunderstood Jew: the Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/4/9780060789664.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 340px;" src="http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/4/9780060789664.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Amy-Jill Levine. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Misunderstood Jew </span><br />New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">This book is worthwhile reading for both Christians and Jews. The author, Amy-Jill Levine, has done an excellent job of overturning stereotypes and positioning Jesus in his original social, religious, and historical contexts. In an unattributed comment on the Harper-Collins website we read, "Her truth–telling here will provoke honest dialogue on how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus and our New Testament heritage."</span><span style="font-size:100%;">(1) Levine is an Orthodox Jew and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. Yes - a Jew teaching New Testament studies!<br /><br />I can only speak from a Christian perspective, and I am embarrassed to admit that I have fallen into the same errors Christians are prone to repeat - taming Jesus' more provocative sayings and mistaking the meaning of others. Levine's book does more than educate me; it challenges and holds me accountable.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(1) <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060789664/The_Misunderstood_Jew/index.aspx">http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060789664/The_Misunderstood_Jew/index.aspx</a></span>and Pastor Mary Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15619602893036600178noreply@blogger.com0