In a speech to his own former department (the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), Benedict XVI condemned modern science's intrusions into the creation of human life -- embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination, freezing of embryos, and the prospect of human cloning. He said that such methods "shattered" basic human dignity.
Pope says some science shatters human dignity, on Reuters.com
I am much more impressed by this Bishop of Rome's statements on science than those of his predecessor, John Paul II. John Paul claimed, for example, that the Darwinist theory of evolution was "more than a hypothesis" and not contrary to Biblical revelation. Benedict seems to be on a much firmer footing with regard to the Church's role as a check on the excesses of modern science.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Pope: Human dignity "shattered" by amoral science
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
De facto ecumenism
I've been reflecting on the fact that some of the goals of the ecumenical movement have already been achieved among many evangelical Protestants, and we don't even realize it.
In my experience, it's a common practice for American evangelicals of different denominations to recognize each other as Christians in the fullest possible sense. We generally feel free to visit each other's churches, receive each other's sacraments, recognize each other's pastors and deacons as validly ordained, and have fellowship with each other without worrying about minor differences of belief or practice. Evangelicals have a core set of beliefs about the Trinity, the Bible, salvation, obedience, and eternal life that is remarkably similar from church to church, and even across what have historically been major dividing lines (the charismatic movement comes to mind). Parachurch organizations have often been helpful here, paradoxically perhaps. Although on the one hand they have caused many people to devalue the institutional Church for the sake of "non-churchly" fellowship and action, on the other hand they have helped Christians from different churches to recognize that we truly belong to one Lord and one body.
It will take a long time for the old mainline churches -- Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and so forth -- to achieve formally what we already have informally, in terms of intercommunion and even practical cooperation. In the midst of all our institutional divisions and petty theological squabbles, God has been very merciful to us. He has preserved a unity in Christ that is far greater and deeper than we know.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Episcopal Church tries to purge conservative bishops
Christianity Today reports that the Episcopal Church's hierarchy, led by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, has threatened three bishops with removal from their positions. The bishops affected -- Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, Jack L. Iker of Fort Worth, and John-David Schofield of Fresno -- had all been taking steps to remove their dioceses' affiliations with the Episcopal Church and join with other branches of the Anglican Communion.
The diocesan leadership of Fort Worth pointed to several of Bishop Jefferts Schori's actions in church leadership as indications that she is promoting a different faith from the historic Christian faith of the Episcopal Church. These actions even included the Christmas card that she sent last month to all of the church's bishops. The card spoke of "wise women throughout time and in every culture [who] know themselves to be seekers and seers of the divine," but had no reference to Jesus.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Lloyd-Jones on the gospel
“The gospel is not something partial or piecemeal: it takes in the whole life, the whole of history, the whole world. It tells us about the creation and the final judgment and everything in between. It is a complete, whole view of life, and many are unhappy in the Christian life because they have never realized that this way of life caters for the whole of man’s life and covers every eventuality in his experience. There is no aspect of life but that the gospel has something to say about it. The whole of life must come under its influence because it is all-inclusive; the gospel is meant to control and govern everything in our lives.”
—from Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure
