Clinton Ohlers: Two Parables on Divine Action

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So there we have it. Two parables on divine action, and probably some more on the way.

  1. The Parable of New Atlantis

  2. The Parable of the House with Forgotten Names

In the meanwhile, we’ve also passed by the Allegory of the Cave, Metaphors of Bacon’s Idols, and more. Colorful conversation this is becoming.

There is quite a bit here, which is why we are putting this out before the conversation opens July 15 (at 8 a.m.). If you’d like you can jump into the fray ahead of time here: https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/side-conversation-on-clinton-ohlers/572. That should give everyone time to read and contemplate before engaging. Keep in mind that @rcohlers sits on the other side of the world, so he will probably not respond till evening. I’m looking forward to the conversation, and have fun reading up.

The Dreaming and Waking Worlds

As a final thought, I will still add one more parable, from one of my regular “conversation” partners, the great C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis writes in Is Theology Poetry?… (http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/Theology=Poetry_CSL.pdf)

This is how I distinguish dreaming and waking. When I am awake I can, in some degree, account for and study my dream. The dragon that pursued me last night can be fitted into my waking world. I know that there are such things as dreams; I know that I had eaten an indigestible dinner; I know that a man of my reading might be expected to dream of dragons. But while in the nightmare I could not have fitted in my waking experience. The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world; the dreaming world is judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason I am certain that in passing from the scientific points of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and [other] religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Come Join the Conversation

And giving @rcohlers the last word:

Now, with that image in our mind, let us invite a larger conversation.

How should we think of Divine Action in light of science and theology?

400 years later after Bacon, we know much more of how science works, and what it can and cannot do. Can we find a better way forward?

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