Reminiscent of the Bible conferences of early Adventist history, a week-long second International Faith and Science Conference convened in Denver, Aug. 20 to 26, and concluded a three-year series of consultations initiated by Seventh-day Adventist world c
Reminiscent of the Bible conferences of early Adventist history, a week-long second International Faith & Science Conference convened in Denver, Aug. 20 to 26, and concluded a three-year series of consultations initiated by Seventh-day Adventist world church leadership.
The issues discussed centered on faith and science, particularly relating to the Adventist understanding of origins. Participants evaluated findings in theology and science and how they interface with, contribute to and challenge the Adventist understanding of origins. An eight-page report, a draft of which was presented at the concluding meeting of the conference, will be presented to the executive committee of the world church in October. It was the action of the church’s executive committee in 2001 that approved holding these meetings and supported the consultations.
The discussions, which brought together 135 Seventh-day Adventist scientists, theologians and church leaders, chiefly centered on, as Lowell Cooper, a general vice president of the church and chairman of the organizing committee, stated, “claims based on a study of Scripture [which] are often viewed in stark contrast to claims arising from the scientific methodologies used in the study of nature. This tension has a direct impact on the life of the Church, its message and witness.” The tension was further emphasized in what some participants saw as an apparent “need to bring clarity” to what the church believes and teaches regarding origins.
In his initial opening address in the first international conversation in Ogden, Utah, which set the parameters of the conference, Jan Paulsen, president of the world church, said, “As a church we don’t come to these discussions with a neutral position. We already have a very defined fundamental belief in regard to creation. We believe that earth and life on it was created in six literal days and that the age of earth since then is a young one.”
Paulsen’s concluding remarks in Denver reiterated his conviction on the issue. “We began these conversations two years ago with the conviction that we needed to talk about challenges which arise when faith engages science in conversation about origins. We felt we should do it not because the fundamental issues were so unclear or because the church was at a crossroad of some sort, but because we are one people, joined together in one service to one Lord, and the issues of faith, creation and science are encountered daily, not least in our educational system, and they keep pressing in on us from several sides.”
He added, “To a very large extent we share a common platform. Whether we are scientists, theologians or church administrators, we come to this as believers. We care for the truth, we care for the church—for its life and witness, and we submit to the Lord as the Almighty Creator.”
Following a celebration of the Sabbath, the conference’s work sessions began on Sunday, Aug. 22, with a time of review and reflection on the information and ideas covered in earlier conferences, including reports from regional consultations, as well as listening to and discussing summaries of the theology and science questions that were explored in the preceding two years. This was followed by looking at some of the implications that various ideas or theories about origins have with respect to doctrines.
In his opening address, addressing the “why are we here?” of the Denver conference, Cooper commented that Seventh-day Adventists “value both the knowledge which comes by divine revelation and that which comes from human observation, research and discovery.”
According to Cooper, the purposes of the meeting included: to “become conversant with the issues and their effect on our collective life and witness,” and to “collaborate in developing appropriate responses that will be of value to the church.” He said, “Since its earliest days the Seventh-day Adventist Church has encouraged the development of [the] mind and understanding through disciplines of worship, education and observation. So it is not surprising that at times our conclusions differ and interpretations vary. We come along the path of learning from different starting points, from different directions and at different paces. For some the answers to questions about origins are a certainty. To others the answers are more elusive and call for investigation and discovery through scientific research.”
The conversation between scientists and theologians exposed a reality of rapid advances in scientific knowledge and research, particularly in the natural and social sciences, which are generally framed within certain assumptions about origins. Presenters often stated that such reality brings into greater prominence, within the church, the question of how to reconcile the differing explanations of origins offered by faith and science.
“No one can deny that within the church itself there is a variety of views about origins,” Cooper said. “Perhaps this should be expected. Is it fair to say that every Seventh-day Adventist belief invites study and reflection? Our belief statements are couched in such brevity. There is opportunity for investigation, questioning and probing the dimensions of what each belief means and how it is to relate to life in our time. But such opportunity does not create room for emptying our beliefs of their content. In saying what we believe we must also be clear as to what we do not believe.”
As dialogue happens and views are expressed, they are often given, in the words of Paulsen, “a sharpness or an edge which may suggest that we do not equally care for one another.”
Several presenters expressed their passionate interest for the conference to bring more specificity to the doctrine of Creation, or, as some put it, affirming “more clearly” the historic Adventist understanding of the Genesis narrative of creation. This notion has led some to recommend to the church leadership to reevaluate the wording of the church’s fundamental belief number 6.
The issue was debated and was reflected in the conference’s report, entitled “Affirmation of Creation.” However, in a view of one participant, “by adding more specificity to our doctrines, we may be talking more and more to ourselves,” said Dr. Alden Thompson, a theology professor from Walla Walla College in Washington state. “That’s one fear I have.”
“My impression of the conference was that it brought together a lot of different opinions and I think that the discussion was enlightening,” said Dr. Lawrence Turner, a theology professor from Newbold College in England. He also felt that “while some wanted the conference to bring us to some kind of closure, and therefore that’s the last we were going to hear of it, but I think it would be better if we saw the conference as a context, kind of the foundation that we can use for understanding one another in the future.”
Turner reflected on the conference’s outcomes and the atmosphere in which these came. “I don’t see any seismic shift that’s going to happen from this conference. I think that some people who heard about the conference back in Europe may have been either curious or nervous about what was going to happen. I think the outcome would say that basically there is a reaffirmation of where the church has been. Speaking personally, I hope that we don’t use the conference to tinker too much with our statements of belief. So [as for the] Fundamental [Belief] Number 6, I think we should leave it using the language of Scripture,” Turner commented.
The report, which is being given a final editorial treatment, recognizes the Adventist faith-based belief in the Biblical account of creation, but it also expresses an affirmation of Adventist scholarship in theology and science.
The questions that engaged the last two years of conversations are not new, nor was the conference an attempt to resolve them once and for all. In Cooper’s words, “acknowledging questions and exploring their implication should not be seen as a threat to one’s spiritual life. Our task is to engage in inter-disciplinary dialogue that identifies the contributions and limitations that both faith and science bring to our collective understanding of our life, our universe and our destiny.”
Before the conference discussed the draft report, Pastor Paulsen stated that the conference findings would be presented to the church’s executive committee at the Annual Council meetings in the autumn for their evaluation and conclusions. “Having received your report, Annual Council will no doubt make an appropriate statement in response to the report. I expect that that would formally mark the end of this conversation.”
The world church president commented on the way, as he sees it, the church should respond to discussing difficult issues. “I submit to you that even before we summarize matters and think in terms of outcomes with respect to any report or statement, learning to communicate in an atmosphere of courtesy and respect is an invaluable quality of life in a community such as ours. If there is to be found among us, as has been demonstrated, a mix of views and approaches with respect to origins, some of which are clearly mutually irreconcilable, we owe it to each other to hear what we have to say and to try to understand, especially in a select group of leaders and thinkers such as we are. Let no one walk away from this conversation and say that they were not heard.”
In Paulsen’s view, “A community which is strong and healthy is in no way threatened by the kind of conversation on this issue [of origins] that we have had spread over three years.”
He also expressed hope in developing a partnership mindset and commitment: “Whatever ministry we are involved in, be it research, writing, teaching or preaching, we will find it in ourselves to continue to search for and to express our shared identity, as a faith community, with respect to origins. I don’t see how genuine partnership is possible and how it can express itself otherwise.”
The conference participants expressed their particular interest in making the church’s stand on the issue of creation more prominent in the church. In the draft report, the conference expressed a view that the Adventist understanding of Scripture needs to engage with the issues of the day. It was felt that the Faith and Science conferences were not convened only for the intellectual stimulation of attendees, but also as an opportunity to provide orientation and practical guidance for church members, as well as for Adventist educators in their classroom setting.
It was also felt that the church should not pretend to keep its beliefs in a safe place, secure from all challenge, and “in doing so they will become relics. Our beliefs need to be engaged in meeting the problems of the day so that they remain a living faith, otherwise they will be nothing more than dead dogma,” the document stated.
A similar sentiment was expressed by Alden Thompson. There will be “tensions in the church. They [were] there in Scripture, among God’s people, so we simply have to accept them and work with them as best we can.”
Concluding his observations, Paulsen spoke of the role of faith in guiding a spiritual community that Seventh-day Adventists are. “I pray that as the Spirit seeks to lead the church, we, the church, will submit to that leading—also submit our individually held perceptions in a spirit of humility, recognizing that the mysteries, which at best we understand in part, must find their place subject to faith.”
He concluded, “We are a faith community, and by faith we declare a vast world of truth which has no means of verification other than the Word of God. They are held to and are spoken of as reality. Reality is not qualified by whether what it affirms is past and can be measured, or is still future. Faith is constantly affirming a world beyond the ‘measurable.’ Faith speaks of the world yet to come—of the second coming of Christ, of the resurrection of the body, of the earth made new, and it speaks of these as realities. Faith’s legitimate capacity to address matters which are not empirically verifiable as realities, solely on the basis of the Word on which faith is grounded, entitles faith to look in any and all directions at realities, affirmed by faith statements, and assert them as truth. God’s gift of inspiration, preserved in sacred writings, has taken us to this place and gives us that right. That is the path of faith.”
Paulsen added that “knowing and understanding may not always be comfortable on this walk, but this is faith’s world; it is a world of mysteries—it is the world of God’s moving and doing. I submit that our view of origins belongs to that world.”
The Denver conference saw a wide spectrum of scholars representing several scholarly establishments of the church, including the Geoscience Research Institute, Biblical Research Institute, as well as Loma Linda University and Andrews University. The group also included a spectrum of the church’s international leadership, theologians and researchers representing the Adventist worldwide faith community.