The Bible affirms God’s presence. “My presence will go with you,
and I will give you rest.” (Ex. 33:14) The Bible also names God Deus Absconditus,
the Hidden God (Is. 45:15). We hold both in tension.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have all rejected claims that belief in the divine has been disproved by British physicist Stephen Hawking, who recently asserted that science leaves no role for God in the creation of the universe.
Donald G. Bloesch, a theologian who as a United Church of Christ minister actively critiqued his denomination's liberal tendencies yet found faults with some forms of evangelical theology, died August 24 in Dubuque, Iowa.
Books
The Origins of Christian Zionism
Lord Shaftesbury and Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland
By Donald M. Lewis
Zeal for Zion
Christians, Jews, and the Idea of the Promised Land
Three new books give fresh insights into the complicated history of
evangelical Zionism. Together they present a compelling argument that
the founding fathers of the modern state of Israel were not just
Theodor Herzl and his Zionist Congress, but American and British
evangelicals who exercised tremendous political and economic power in
the 19th century—power that modern-day evangelicals like Hagee and his
allies can only dream of.
A group of paleontologists capped off a conference by visiting the Creation Museum in Kentucky. The museum’s mission is to “bring the pages of the Bible to life.” Some of the paleontologists present were Christians who were more saddened by what they saw than humored. “I think it’s very bad science and even worse theology—and the theology is far more offensive to me,” said Lisa Park, a Presbyterian who teaches at the University of Akron. She was particularly saddened by one exhibit that blamed wars, famine and natural disasters on belief in evolution. Daryl Domning, professor at Howard University said: “This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it’s just as much a distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science” (AFP).
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