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2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 When faith & science conflict, someone is trespassing Mar 03, 2010
By Edward William Fudge
God has no controversy with evolution and evolution poses no threat to faith in God. In a word, that is the message (though not a direct quote) of this book. The fight is not between creation and science, insist religion professor Mitchell and attorney/author Blackard. The conflict is either between creation and scientism (which they say claims too much for itself and assumes there is no God), or it is between science and creationism (which they say misuses the Bible by wrongly reading Genesis as if it were literal and scientific).
Neither Mitchell nor Blackard is a scientist and they offer no scientific arguments for evolution. Instead they concentrate on the purpose of the Book of Genesis: not to answer modern scientific questions, these authors say, but to refute ancient Mid-Eastern polytheism. Genesis teaches theology, not science, and theology is a matter of faith. Science properly speaks about things that can be tested and observed -- which does not include matters of faith. If these authors are correct in their conviction that faith and science occupy different ground, it also follows that science and faith need never clash. When their practitioners do clash, by this logic, someone is trespassing on another's property.
These authors cite St. Augustine, who urged believers not to quote Scripture to refute scientific theories, lest unbelieving scientists conclude that Scripture is unreliable and reject its teaching about salvation also. Similarly, Galileo proclaimed his faith in Scripture, but he warned that its purpose is "to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes." Likewise, say Mitchell and Blackard, even George Frederick Wright, B.B. Warfield and James Orr, three authors of the book series called "The Fundamentals," which spurred and gave name to later "fundamentalism," accepted some form of evolution.
In the end, the authors of Reconciling the Bible and Science have removed the traditional rivals from the field of sport and have ensconced them in separate barracks. Whether, by doing so, they have rendered valuable service to sincere and well-informed devotees in both houses, or whether they have abandoned critical biblical principle and cut short important scientific debate, will itself be the subject of ongoing controversy.
 This book rises above the controversy to appeal to seekers and those who would reach them Nov 18, 2011
By Joseph P. Becker
If I were ever charged with the undertaking of teaching an Introduction to the Bible course on a secular college campus, Reconciling the Bible and Science: A Primer on the Two Books of God would very likely be the textbook I would choose to use for that course. This book is perfectly suited for the task of credibly capturing the imagination of the semi-serious seeker--the student who is trendily (or presumptively) agnostic or atheist, but has never made a serious investigation into the issues surrounding the questions of God, science, earth history, creation, evolution, the origins of life, or the place of humankind in the created order, and has never received any instruction on the history, nature, and complexity of biblical literature, or on the proper interpretation of its various forms. In Reconciling the Bible and Science, Mitchell and Blackard tackle all these questions, and more, giving a thorough (if, at times, discursive) overview of the history of scientific thought and biblical interpretation on all the major issues involved in the current debate; and they do so on a level, and to a depth, that is perfectly suited for their target audience.
Keeping this audience in mind is critical to appreciating the approach taken by Mitchell and Blackard in this work. This book is not intended for those who are already steeped in the controversy and have their positions firmly staked out; though many who fall into that category might benefit from locating themselves in the dispassionately illustrated constellation drawn by the authors. Moreover, this book, as it would appear, is not intended to be persuasive, for--though the authors have a point of view on the subject, and though they recommend their point of view to the reader--they present their view not as the most-compelling, but as the least-problematic.
And herein lies what appears to be the self-imposed limitation of this book. In the process of giving the reader an overview of the various approaches Christian thinkers have taken on the issues involved, Mitchell and Blackard tend to hold the great majority of Christian scholarship in this area at arm's length: making quick work of summarizing and categorizing schools of thought, pointing out their respective flaws, and grading them according to their comparative merit (or lack thereof)--with rankings ranging from problematic (at best) to untenable (at worst). In the end, the only position left standing is their own, and this leaves them somewhat isolated (with no clear allies) at the far left end of conservative Christian thought. For Mitchell and Blackard, however, this does not appear to be a misstep, but a purposive strategy. The aim of this work is not to unify, rally or fortify already well-established Christian schools of thought; the purpose of this book is to stand in the gap between God-as-he reveals-himself-in-the-created-order and God-as-he-reveals-himself-in-his-Word, with a view toward presenting a unified vision of the two to an onlooking world. And, in order to do that in a way that will be received as credible among their target audience, it is necessary for them to distance themselves from every camp of Christian scholarship that can be perceived as unscientific.
This approach seems to work well for them, and unifies their book from cover to cover with a consistent thesis--that God has revealed himself in two books: in one book, the Bible, he reveals himself theologically; in the other book, the created order, he reveals himself empirically. Neither one of these books, the authors maintain, can ever be used to contradict the other, because the two have been written for different purposes, in different languages, and--to some degree--to different audiences. And, with this in view, Mitchell and Blackard conclude that the ongoing controversy between Christianity and science is all heat and no light, because the perceived issues at stake, are, in fact, non-issues. Not only is there no contradiction between the Bible and science, but there is no plausible reason why anyone should imagine that there could be, or should be. Rather, it should, in all cases, be remembered that God is consistent, and he cannot contradict himself, and--as such--he will not reveal himself in the created order contrary to how he has revealed himself in his written Word. Thus, whenever there is an apparent contradiction between the Christian's two data sets--the data revealed through biblical inquiry, and the data revealed through scientific inquiry--this stands as evidence that one of the data sets has been misinterpreted, and that a re-evaluation of both is in order. All-in-all, this seems to be a very reasonable and practicable approach to take to the subject, and it ought to be somewhat appealing--even compelling--to the authors' intended audience: uninformed-but-self-assured dismissers of Christian thought, and those who are trying to educate them. And, to that audience, I recommend this book whole-heartedly.
Joseph Peter Becker, BA, MA, PhD
Minister, Steamboat Church of Christ
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
0 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Excellent book Feb 22, 2010
By Denise L. Raimondo
This book was delivered right away in mint condition. I was very pleased with my order.
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