[December 2003 journal entry]
The exercise of human freedom/will/choice had transitioned by the 17th century from generating seminal ideas to transforming social structures and worldviews (e.g., Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, the introduction of statistics, Locke, the beheading of the British monarch, Newton, . . .). We are irreversibly past that 17th century transition. We have immediate/direct control (i.e., ‘sovereignty’?) over more and more that happens to/around us. Note the frequent references to ‘playing God’. The origins from which all Christian theological traditions have emerged predate that 17th century transition (most by many centuries), thereby creating a complicated hermeneutic task if one’s intent is to radically (i.e., into the root) participate in the modern setting. Some Christian theological traditions in/since the 17th century (have) responded with suspicion; others (have) embraced the spirit of critical inquiry that was building momentum on numerous fronts (including challenges to traditional sources of religious authority). No Christian theological traditions (have) responded with more suspicion/resistance to this spirit of critical inquiry than the traditions that evolved from Luther and Calvin into the Synod of Dort (1619) and the Westminster Confession (1648) statements of orthodoxy. Both the more suspicious and the more embracing responses faced (and continue to face) substantial theological challenges re participating in a scientifically-based society/profession (most pointedly in my judgment – the pressure from such ideas as ‘innocent suffering’ and ‘theodicy’).
The exercise of human freedom/will/choice had transitioned by the 17th century from generating seminal ideas to transforming social structures and worldviews (e.g., Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, the introduction of statistics, Locke, the beheading of the British monarch, Newton, . . .). We are irreversibly past that 17th century transition. We have immediate/direct control (i.e., ‘sovereignty’?) over more and more that happens to/around us. Note the frequent references to ‘playing God’. The origins from which all Christian theological traditions have emerged predate that 17th century transition (most by many centuries), thereby creating a complicated hermeneutic task if one’s intent is to radically (i.e., into the root) participate in the modern setting. Some Christian theological traditions in/since the 17th century (have) responded with suspicion; others (have) embraced the spirit of critical inquiry that was building momentum on numerous fronts (including challenges to traditional sources of religious authority). No Christian theological traditions (have) responded with more suspicion/resistance to this spirit of critical inquiry than the traditions that evolved from Luther and Calvin into the Synod of Dort (1619) and the Westminster Confession (1648) statements of orthodoxy. Both the more suspicious and the more embracing responses faced (and continue to face) substantial theological challenges re participating in a scientifically-based society/profession (most pointedly in my judgment – the pressure from such ideas as ‘innocent suffering’ and ‘theodicy’).
