A. H. Strong: Reformed Baptist, Flaming Liberal?

Theistic evolution, in its most basic form, is this: the scientific evidence for evolution, backed largely but not exclusively by millions of fossils of extinct species, dated as "old" (i.e., hundreds of thousands to billions depending on the species) by various different yet consistent means, is overwhelming. So, the theistic evolutionist argues, God must have used evolution (though never outside his control) as a secondary means to create the diversity of life.

Of course, as with everything, there is a liberal-to-conservative spectrum. Liberal theistic evolutionists do not affirm a historic Adam and Eve. Conservative theistic evolutionists affirm the historicity of the first couple. (They might differ at that point on their speculation--whether Adam and Eve were hominids that God "ensouled" or whether they were specially created.)

The advantages of theistic evolution include:

• It is consistent with science which, by another name, is the study of General Revelation
• Specifically it is consistent with (and a consequence of ) the science of genetics, which virtually all Christians accept, except for the necessary long-term prediction of genetics: evolution
• Assuming that the offspring (i.e. the sons of Adam and Eve) mated with hominids, it explains a) where those mates came from and b) why human DNA does not point to a common set of parents 

It is not uncommon for me to meet Christians who, upon learning that I'm a physicist, will allow as to how my science is more-or-less acceptable, but soon reveal that any acceptance of evolution is outside the pale of orthodoxy.

For this, and other reasons, I find myself in the labelled, simultaneously, as a lunatic conservative, biblical-innerancy nutter, frozen chosen Ichabod Crane and as a Bishop-Spongian, flaming-liberal pointed head scientist. It's an amusing world.

But, I have company. (And proof that theistic evolution is as old as evolution itself.)

From the Wikipedia entry on Agustus Strong: Augustus Hopkins Strong (3 August 1836 – 29 November 1921) was a Baptist minister and theologian who lived in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His most influential book, Systematic Theology, proved to be a mainstay of Reformed Baptist theological education for several generations.

A. H. Strong is, it is fair to say, highly respected in Reformed circles, especially Reformed Baptist circles. This is what he wrote, using the phrase Christian conception of evolution rather than theistic evolution:

There is a Christian conception of evolution, and in light of it, I propose to interpret the fall and the redemption of man. To prevent misunderstanding, I must define what I mean by evolution. Evolution is not a cause but a method. God is the cause. He is in his universe, and he is the source of all its activities with the single exception of the evil activity of the human will. When I speak of evolution as the method of God, I imply that the immanent God works by law; that this is the law of development; that God, and the old the basis of the new, and the new an outgrowth of the old. In all ordinary cases God works from within and not from without. Yet this ordinary method does not confine or limit God. He is transcendent as well as immanent. His is not simply “in all” and “through all” but he is also “above all.” (Emphasis added.)

The Fall and the Redemption of Man in light of Evolution, Augustus. H. Strong, A paper read at the Baptist Congress, Buffalo NY, November 15 1898. Reprinted p. 163, Christ in Creation and Ethical Monism, Augustus. H. Strong, Roger Williams Press, Philadelphia, 1899.


Hat Tip: Charles Taylor, great teacher, great friend, greatly missed.