1957 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 206

REVELATION AND EVOLUTION

169

„The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter — for Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are imm.ediately created by God. However this must be done in such a way that the reason for both opinions, that is, those favorable und those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and m e a s u r e . . . . " What has been the attitude of some of the Reformed scholars of the past? As far as Dr. B. Warfield is concerned, in his „Biblical and Theological Studies", 1952, p. xii, the Editor Dr. S. E. Craig says : „Warfield.... maintained to the end a keen and informed interest in the theories of evolution that from time to time made there appearance. He never denied that evolution is a method that God. has employed (italics ours) in bringing the world to its present stage of development, but he denied with emphasis that it is the only method He has employed." This squares with what Warfield himself says on p. 238, that evolution „at best can supply only a theory of the method of divine providence". Ramm says in his „The Christian View of Science and Scripture", p. 287, that according to Warfield, „If evolution were carefully guarded theologically it could pass as a tenable theorie of the divine procedure in creating man". It is interesting that Warfield did not hold the view, common in our circles, that there is no creation going on after the sixth day. .,Biblical Theological Studies", p. 13 : „In our conception of a supernatural God, we dare not erect His providential activity into an exclusive law of action for Him, and refuse to allow any other mode of operation. Who can say, for example, whether creation itself, in the purity and absoluteness of that conception, may not be progressive, and may not correlate itself with and follow the process of the providential development of the vt^orld, in the plan of God — so that the works of creation and providence may interlace through all time in the production of this completed universe." There are some developments in physics and astrophysics that point that way i) and we mention it also because there are some among us 1) See also J. Blok, „Schepping in de moderne fysica", Geloof en Wetenschap, p. 57, maart 1957.

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