From: Howard J. Van Till (hvantill@chartermi.net)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 17:39:59 EDT
From: igevolution@earthlink.net
> Mr. Van Till's RFEP, which I assume to be an update of the "fully-gifted
> creation" with which I became familiar in college, plants its flag firmly
> on normal and extrodinary providence actions, while not allowing for the
> miraculous.
The RFEP does not exclude miracles. Here is what I actually said in
Perspectives, Dec., 2002:
2. If the universe satisfies the RFEP, is divine creative action thereby
excluded or somehow made "remote"?
Not at all. The RFEP (or the right stuff universe principle) says nothing
either for or against the reality of divine action in the universe. For
Christians the question is not, Does God act in the creation? By both
conviction and experience we profess that God does act in the world and in
our lives. No, the question at issue here is, What is the character of the
creation in which God acts? Thatıs the question to which the RFEP proposes
an answer.
Now, if the creation has the particular character described by the RFEPthat
is, if the creation is a right stuff universethen we would infer that
divine creative action of the form-conferring intervention type is not
necessary to effect the Creatorıs will for the universeıs formational
history. The RFEP is silent, however, on all other questions regarding
divine action. Divine action in any category other than form-conferring
intervention may be as close (proximate) and intimate as oneıs theology
posits.
Some critics have expressed the concern that the absence of gaps in the
creationıs formational economy effectively confines divine action to the
remote past and stands in the way of Godıs continuing action in the
creation. I am baffled by that fear. As far as I know, historic Christian
theology has never posited that God is able and/or willing to act only
within gaps in the creationıs formational or operational economies. That
being the case, then the absence of such gaps presents no theological loss
whatsoever.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Apr 15 2003 - 18:09:16 EDT