Encountering Secular Science

1. Encountering Secular Science Michael Goheen Trinity Western University Langley, B.C., Canada

2. Starting with the Gospel Restorative: Good news! God is restoring creation Comprehensive: Good news! God is restoring all of human life in the context of all of the creation Story: Climax of long story of restoration Mission: Given to church to make known

3. The Spirit thrusts God’s people into worldwide mission He impels young and old, men and women, To go next door and far away Into science and art, media and marketplace, With the good news of God’s grace. . . Following the apostles, the church is sent– Sent with the gospel of the kingdom To tell the news that our world belongs to God. … In a world estranged from God, where millions face confusing choices, this mission is central to our being… The rule of Jesus Christ covers the whole world. To follow this Lord is to serve him everywhere, without fitting in, as lights in the darkness, as salt in a spoiling world.

4. Starting Observations Education good part of God’s creation That has been corrupted by sin Announcement of the kingdom includes education within its scope Christian community sent to be good news in area of education Will involve an encounter with education shaped by other idolatrous beliefs

5. Gospel will shape every part of educational enterprise including: Purpose of education Pedagogy Curriculum Structures Leadership Evaluation Content of subject matter in various disciplines

6. Importance of Ideas So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through the hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. - Colossian 2.6-8

7. Ideas have legs Ideas have legs in the sense that they are not the disembodied abstractions of some ivory-tower academic, but are real spiritual forces that go somewhere, that are on the march in somebody’s army, and that have a widespread effect on our practical, everyday lives.

8. Slaves of ideas? The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt, from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. (John Maynard Keynes)

9. Power of ideas My point is that in such seemingly innocent-looking words and phrases a whole idolatrous perspective on the world, a whole distorted mind-set and humanistic thought-pattern is subliminally propagated in our civilization.

10. Power of secularized scholarship ‘. . . science, secularised and isolated, has become a satanic power, an idol which dominates all of culture.’ (Herman Dooyeweerd)

11. Idolatrous spirit of secular science Ideas must be free from all religious commitment Gospel religious optional extra ‘Dogma-free’ scholarship an illusion Deeply indebted to humanist religion Helpful to trace historical roots of secular science

12. Dualism of Augustine Spiritual realm Heaven Soul Church Christian life _____________________________________ Material realm Earth Body Society Cultural life