Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation

by Gordon J. Glover

As debates within the Church over the scientific details of creation become more frequent, the experts seem to grow more entrenched while the rest of us only become more confused. Somewhere between the endless arguments over distant starlight and Carbon-14 dating, calculating the mathematical improbabilities of things that already exist, and parsing ancient Hebrew and Greek, somebody needs to ask the simple question, If 3,500 years of scientific progress can t help modern Christians figure out Genesis, then how could the ancient Israelites possibly have understood it so well? What secret did this newly liberated gaggle of Hebrew nomads take with them out of Egypt that holds the key to understanding God s telling of His own creation story? Beyond the Firmament challenges all creationist camps whether Young-Earth, Old-Earth, or Theistic Evolutionist to step outside of traditional paradigms and recognize how our modern, Western, post-Enlightenment scientific worldview actually blinds us from seeing the simple truth of Creation as it was originally intended; and how our failure to grasp the theological significance of the biblical creation model puts science and faith on a collision course.

Genres: Science, Christian, Christianity

228 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2007

Reviews

[Stuart Bobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this 8+ years ago. It comes to mind as I finished reading another book. Both books build an excellent argument to suggest that Genesis 1 is doing something quite different than detailing a simple, linear creation order.

If you are a young earth creationist (I am most definitely not), you owe it to yourself to see that there are ways to approach scripture that are quite different than you have assumed. This book is one you should read. Even if you don't ultimately accept his conclusions, you'll be better informed of exactly the size of heavy lift you have taken on with your assumptions about what is being said in Genesis 1. Hint: Your biggest problem is not seven, 24 hour days - though that is plenty large in itself.

I found this book quite engaging, easy to read and very solid in the arguments it makes. It didn't change my mind in any major way because I've been an old earth believer for a very long time.

For myself, I've considered the seven day creation story in Genesis as clearly not intended to be literal for 40+ years. The very idea that Genesis discusses "days" and "night" creation one or two days before God creates the very thing that any audience would use to define day and night (sun/moon) is to me a very large red flag that what is being described here is not simple, literal, linear history.

This book does a good job of suggesting how you might approach those texts instead - without consigning them to mythology or torturing them to be some weird allegory either. Rather, they remain inerrant scripture focused on the most important thing - the Creator, not the creation.

[Paul Bruggink · Rating 4 out of 5]

How different would Christian evangelism be if all of the Young Earth Creationists (YECs) gradually folded their tents and gave up their sincere but misguided fight that is so detrimental to Christian evangelism, especially toward the scientific community. Since YECs believe that the Bible trumps science every time, no argument from science is ever going to make this happen. This book, written by an evangelical Christian layman for conservative evangelical Christian adherents of Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Intelligent Design, takes a giant step toward achieving the above goal.

Gordon J. Glover maintains that YECs and OECs are equally wrong in their approach to interpreting Genesis 1 & 2 (and other references to creation in the Bible). His main theme is that Genesis 1 & 2 are not scientific accounts of the origin of the universe and that both YECs and OECs err in trying to interpret it that way. He makes a very good case from the Bible itself that God accommodated his message to what the Israelites of that time could understand, and that God's message was theological, not scientific.

This approach is not new. It has been well developed in a number of commentaries on Genesis, including but not limited to John H. Walton's "The NIV Application Commentary-Genesis," C. John Collins' "Genesis 1-4," and Henri Blocher's "In the Beginning." What is new here is a discussion of the issues in a form much more accessable to Christian laymen. The author is neither a scientist nor a theologian, and, while his writing style is a bit flippant at times, he makes his points well, forcefully and understandably. He also acknowledges that it is going to take a lot of time for YECs to make the transition to a different way of understanding God's message in Genesis.

The author describes his reluctant acceptance of evolution as just another natural process through which God has been operating in his providental governance of the universe. In that vein, he expresses his dislike of the term "theistic evolution" as not making any more sense than "theistic meteorology." He cites a number of clearly stated, understandable reasons why biological evolution is currently the most reasonable explanation of the facts that scientists are observing in nature.

The author goes on to very clearly demonstrate that "creation science" is not science, that science is not the enemy of Christianity, and that science does not lie. He summarizes his position on "creation science" in four bullet points on page 105 as follows:
(1) Creaton science removes the Bible out from under the protection of the ancient Near-Eastern worldview - where truth did not always have to be expressed in scientific terms, and subjects it to the rigors of the modern materialists' worldview - which requires truth to always be precisely communicated in scientific terms.
(2) Creation science marginalizes the timeless theological realities of the creation story by exposing the timely physical details to scientific ridicule.
(3) Creation science hands the secular world a Biblical straw-man that can be easily torn down, along with the entire Christian faith.
(4) Since all scientific propositions are subject to falsification, creation science puts the Lord our God to the test!

I only wish that there were some way that Young Earth Creationists (and a few Old Earth Creationists) could be exposed to this book. I highly recommend it.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I'd like if possible to introduce to close Christian friends, or others who are thoughtful about their faith. It basically presents evidence for trusting in the scientific process, in the astronomical and geological time frames and in evolution -- but at the same time maintains a reverent attitude toward God and argues that a belief in science is perfectly compatible with faith. It necessarily delves into the question: how should we interpret the Bible? The key point is the theory of accommodation, which is when Genesis was authored, it used the contemporary framework at the time (regarding cosmology, etc) because the authorial intention was to make a theological point -- there is a God, one God, who created the world -- rather than to teach a science lesson. The further point is that by saying science is valid, that the earth is billions of years old and that humans evolved, does not exclude that God can still be active -- that He created through natural rather than miraculous (a break in natural processes) means. There is a lot of interesting discussion about Babylonian/Egpytian creation myths and how the Bible borrows this framework but introduces a new theology to it; there are also great quotes from church fathers such as Ausgustine and Calvin making the case for the principle of accommodation, which Glover then argues should be extended to questions of origin as well.

Having said that, this interpretation raises very serious questions, as Glover himself acknowledges. For eg, if humans evolved, at what point did we acquire souls? (And, if animals evolve to human levels of intelligence, will they also acquire souls?) If Adam and Eve are not literal, how do we read other parts of Genesis -- such as Noah and the flood, was that literal? But Glover's point is that, indeed, these are the questions we need to grapple with as modern, educated Christians; rather than endless fighting over basic facts such as the age of the earth, we need to accept the (tentative) conclusions of modern science without trying to demonize it, so that more important and up to date questions can be thought about.

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gordon J. Glover's "Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation" covers much of the same ground as his video series (http://www.youtube.com/user/WesBurtsc...,) but while the videos focus mainly on science and education, the book delves more deeply into the theological/philosophical side of things as well as the history and culture of the Ancient Near East. Glover, being neither a scientist nor a theologian, treats both subjects adequately at a layperson's level. Young-Earth Creationists will feel some sympathy for his initial feelings toward biological evolution: "I'll be the first to admit that I'm not too crazy about any suggestion that mankind has descended from something less than human," he states in the opening paragraph of chapter 9, "The whole thing just seems downright creepy to me." Yet he presents an honest examination of the data and concludes that Christians should tentatively accept the conclusions of the natural sciences without fear, for "no scientific theory can possibly dethrone God as the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth."

My only problems with the book are relatively minor and fall into 3 categories:
1. An abundance of typographical errors. You might say it's one of my "pte peeevs."
2. Over-simplification to the point of inaccuracy. Not a big deal since the whole point is to bring scientific topics down to a lay level, and he freely admits to it (e.g. "I don't know the first thing about feline genetics so if that happens to be your area of expertise, I apologize.")
3. A few peripheral theological issues where his opinions clash with my own, but that's practically inevitable and makes no difference to the main point of the book.

Overall, I highly recommend it to any Christians who have trouble reconciling their beliefs with the findings of modern science, as well as anyone interested in the relationship between science and faith.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the Firmament delves into what we can know about nature from the Bible and what we can know about God from science. He concludes that the original audience of Genesis was hardly concerned with explaining the world's formation scientifically, and that science is only able to explain the world of the senses by means of natural causes. Glover does a good job of putting Genesis 1 in its ancient context and arguing that its primary message was to show that Yahweh alone, not pagan deities, created the world and gave it order. His explanations of what science says about the age of the earth and about evolution are designed to be simple enough for the nonscientific mind to understand, but I think better much explanations can be found in Falk's Coming To Peace With Science and Collins's The Language of God. Glover's intended audience is conservative evangelicals, and he is very sensitive in his approach. This may be the book to give someone within this movement who is just beginning to have questions about literal six-day creationism. Personally, I found little in this book that I had not been exposed to before, aside from ANE mythology and culture. Glover covers Genesis 1 pretty well, but leaves us hanging on Genesis 2-11. I give the book a B-

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredible book to me. It felt liberating even before I got to the sections where the author mentioned that possibility.

Not that I don't question a few of Mr. Glover's assumptions. His reference to the word "firmament" as being a "smoking gun" loses some of its impact when we check other translations and find that in many cases, that word is translated as "expanse."

Nonetheless, there is much food for thought in his book. I appreciated the layman's approach that made the topic understandable to someone not versed in all the intricacies of the creation debate.

Reading this book has given me new impetus to explore parts of the creation vs. evolution argument that I'd previously thought tiresome.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

while I agree with the many points made in his book, his writing style was condescending at times to the very viewpoint he was trying to change. And as much as he tried to lay out scientific evidence to prove his point, unfortunately the american religious communities that hold to creationism will not respond to scientific observation to sway them from a particular biblical interpretation. The bottom line is that it is an "either/or" choice for them.