Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: 1700-Present (2 vols)

635 Pages·2009·5.78 MB·English

by  Jitse M. Van Der Meer

Nature and Scripture in the
Abrahamic Religions: 1700–Present
Volume 1
Brill’s Series in
Church History
Edited by
Wim Janse, Amsterdam
In cooperation with
Theo Clemens, Utrecht/Antwerpen
Olivier Fatio, Genève
Alastair Hamilton, London
Scott Mandelbrote, Cambridge
Andrew Pettegree, St. Andrews
VOLUME 37
Nature and Scripture in the
Abrahamic Religions:
1700–Present
Volume 1
Edited by
Jitse M. van der Meer
Scott Mandelbrote
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
On the cover: Painting from the Ultimate Realities collection by Wilhelmina Kennedy.
Photo by Edwin Amsden. Used by kind permission.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic religions : 1700-present / edited by Jitse M.
van der Meer, Scott Mandelbrote.
p. cm. — (Brill’s series in church history ; v. 37)
Publication is in part the result of a conference with the title Interpreting Nature
and Scripture: History of a Dialogue and held at Redeemer University College in
2005.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17192-3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Bible and science—History—Congresses. 2. Religion and science—History—
Congresses. 3. Nature—Religious aspects—Congresses. 4. Bible and evolution—
History—Congresses. 5. Bible—Hermeneutics—History—Congresses. 6. Nature in
the Bible—Congresses. I. Meer, Jitse M. van der. II. Mandelbrote, Scott. III. Title.
IV. Series.
BS650.N38 2008
220.8’5—dc22
2008045757
ISSN 1572-4107
ISBN 978 90 04 17188 6 (volume 1)
ISBN 978 90 04 17190 9 (volume 2)
ISBN 978 90 04 17192 3 (set)
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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printed in the netherlands
Dedicated to the memory of
Mariano Artigas who now needs
neither the Book of Nature
nor the Book of Scripture

CONTENTS
VOLUME 1
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xi
Notes on Contributors ................................................................ xiii
List of Illustrations ...................................................................... xvii
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
Chapter One Biblical Hermeneutics and the Sciences,
1700–1900: An Overview ....................................................... 3
Scott Mandelbrote
PART I
1700–1900
Chapter Two Biblical Interpretation in the Light of the
Interpretation of Nature, 1650–1900 .................................... 41
William Yarchin
Chapter Three Jonathan Edwards and the Discourses of
Nature ..................................................................................... 83
Robert E. Brown
Chapter Four Georges Cuvier and the Use of Scripture
in Geology ............................................................................... 115
Jitse M. van der Meer
Chapter Five Ethnology and the “Two Books”: Some
Nineteenth-Century Americans on Preadamist
Polygenism .............................................................................. 145
G. Blair Nelson
viii contents
PART II
1860–1900: SCRIPTURE AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Chapter Six Interpreting Scripture, Assimilating Science:
Four British and American Christian Evolutionists on the
Relationship between Science, the Bible, and Doctrine ........ 183
Richard England
Chapter Seven Scriptural Facts and Scientifi c Theories:
Epistemological Concerns of Three Leading English-
Speaking Anti-Darwinians (Pusey, Hodge, and Dawson) ...... 225
Richard England
Chapter Eight The Will to Meaning: Protestant Reactions
to Darwinism in Nineteenth-Century Germany ................... 257
Bernhard Kleeberg
VOLUME 2
Chapter Nine Dutch Calvinists and Darwinism,
1900–1960 ............................................................................... 293
Rob P.W. Visser
Chapter Ten Twin Sisters with a Changing Character:
How Neo-Calvinists Dealt with the Modern Discrepancy
between Bible and Natural Sciences ...................................... 317
George Harinck
Chapter Eleven The Problem of Faith and Scientifi c
Knowledge in Russian Religious Thought of the
Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries ............................................ 371
Alexei V. Nesteruk
PART III
1900–PRESENT
Chapter Twelve Original Sin, Biblical Hermeneutics,
and the Science of Evolution ................................................. 407
J. Matthew Ashley
contents ix
Chapter Thirteen Galileo and the Garden of Eden:
Historical Refl ections on Creationist Hermeneutics .............. 437
Edward B. Davis and Elizabeth Chmielewski
Chapter Fourteen A Post-World War II Response to Karl
Barth and Rudolf Bultmann: Biblical Hermeneutics and
Modern Science in the ‘Dutch Reformed Church’ in the
Twentieth Century .................................................................. 465
Henri Wijnandus de Knijff
Chapter Fifteen The Exegesis of Science in Twentieth-
Century Arabic Interpretations of the Qur(cid:120)ān ...................... 491
Marwa Elshakry
Chapter Sixteen Judaism and the Religious Crisis of
Modern Science ...................................................................... 525
Menachem Fisch
Index ........................................................................................... 569