God of gaps (was Re: What would you ask ?)

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Fri, 09 Oct 1998 12:15:34 -0400

John P. McKiness wrote:
..........................
> As an aside to all on the list, Dr. Behe seems to think that the term "god
> of the gaps" was coined by his critics. Seems to me that I have used it
> much longer than his ideas have been expressed; does anyone know the history
> of the term.

The term certainly wasn't coined in the last few years. _The Westminster
Dictionary of Christian Theology_, published in 1983, has a separate entry for it, but
this deals with the concept & doesn't trace the history of the phrase itself. Its use
is often connected with Bonhoeffer, & especially with his later writings in _Letters and
Papers from Prison_. In a letter dated May 25th 1944 he says:
"Weizsaecker's book on the world view of physics is still keeping me busy. It
has brought home to me how wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the
incompleteness of our knowledge."
He deals at some length here with criticisms of "God as a stop-gap", meaning
essentially our "God of the gaps." I don't know, though, if this is the origin of the
phrase & also don't have Bonhoeffer's German here.

Shalom,
George

> John
>
>
>
> 

-- 
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/