Intelligent Design Bad Science

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PNEUMA The Pentecostal Theology

EDITOR

Frank D. Macchia, Vanguard University of Southern California

MANAGING EDITOR

Ed Rybarczyk, Vanguard University of Southern California

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR

Amos Yong, Regent University

BOOK REVIEW EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Jami Simon, Regent University

COPY EDITOR

Nancy de Flon

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Edith L. Blumhofer, University of Chicago Divinity School

Donald W. Dayton, Drew Theological School

Sherry Sherrod Dupree, Santa Fe Community College

Hannah K. Harrington, Patten College

Jeff Hittenberger, Vanguard University of Southern California

Cheryl Bridges Johns, Church of God School of Theology

Steven J. Land, Church of God School of Theology

Henry I. Lederle, Oral Roberts University

Leonard Lovett, Independent Scholar

Gary B. McGee, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary

Doug Petersen, Vanguard University of Southern California Margaret M. Poloma, University of Akron, and Vanguard University of Southern

California

Cecil M. Robeck Jr., Fuller Theological Seminary

James K. Smith, Calvin College

Russell P. Spittler, Vanguard University of Southern California

Roger Stronstad, Western Pentecostal Bible College

H. Vinson Synan, Regent University

Eldin Villafañe, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Grant Wacker, Duke Divinity School

Everett A. Wilson, Bethany College

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PNEUMA

The Pentecostal Theology

Volume 28, Number 1, Spring 2006

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

Intelligent Design: Bad Science? ……………………………………………….. 1

Frank D. Macchia

ARTICLES

Integrating Pneumatology and Christology: A Trinitarian

Modification of Clark H. Pinnock’s Spirit Christology ……………… 5

Steven M. Studebaker

In Appreciation of Jürgen Moltmann: A Discussion of His

Transformational Eschatology …………………………………………………… 21

Peter Althouse

Pentecostalism, Nationalism, and Québec Culture …………………….. 33

Michael Di Giacomo

Old Wine, New Wineskins: The Rise of Healing Rooms in

Revival Pentecostalism ……………………………………………………………… 59

Margaret M. Poloma

A Prophetic Outsider: Experience and the Boundaries of

Meaning in a Local Vineyard Church ………………………………………. 72

Peter Versteeg

Fanning the Flames: How the Renewal Movement Has Shaped American Theological Education ……………………………………………… 89

James T. Flynn and Wie L. Tjiong

DIALOGUE

God’s Fairness to People of All Faiths: A Respectful Proposal to Pentecostals for Discussion Regarding World Religions ……………. 105

Tony Richie

Can Pentecostals Be Wesleyans? My Reply to Don Dayton’s Rejoinder …………………………………………………………………………………. 120

Larry Wood

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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 28, No. 1, Spring 2006

REVIEW ESSAY

A Fitting Tribute: A Review Essay of The Holy Spirit and

Christian Origins: Essays in Honor of James D. G. Dunn ………. 131

Reviewed by Robert P. Menzies

BOOK REVIEWS

Jim Purves, The Triune God and the Charismatic Movement: A Critical Appraisal of Trinitarian Theology and Charismatic Experience from a Scottish Perspective ………………………………………. 141

Reviewed by Mark J. Cartledge

John Polkinghorne, Science and the Trinity: The Christian

Encounter with Reality ……………………………………………………………… 143

Reviewed by Dennis W. Cheek

Edmund J. Rybarczyk, Beyond Salvation: Eastern Orthodoxy and Classical Pentecostalism on Becoming Like Christ …………………….. 144

Reviewed by Timothy Cremeens

James D. Hernando, The Dictionary of Hermeneutics: A Concise Guide to Terms, Names, Methods, and Expression …………………….. 147

Reviewed by Geomon K. George

Kenneth J. Collins, The Evangelical Moment: The Promise of an American Religion …………………………………………………………………… 148

Reviewed by Barry W. Hamilton

Mark I. Wallace, Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature ……………………………………………………………………………. 151

Reviewed by Pamela Holmes

Roswith Gerloff, Das schwarze Lächeln Gottes. Afrikanische Diaspora als Herausforderung an Theologie und Kirche. Beiträge aus 30 Jahren reflektierter Praxis, eds. Gisela Egler and Paul Löffler …………………………………………………………………………………….. 153

Reviewed by Werner Kahl

Damian Thompson, Waiting for Antichrist: Charisma and

Apocalypse in a Pentecostal Church ………………………………………… 155

Reviewed by William K. Kay

Milmon F. Harrison, Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith

Movement in Contemporary African American Religion ……………… 157

Reviewed by Shayne Lee

Randall J. Pannell, Those Alive Here Today: The “Day of Horeb” and Deuteronomy’s Hermeneutical Locus of Revelation ……………… 159

Reviewed by Rickie D. Moore

Philip Clements-Jewery, Intercessory Prayer …………………………….. 162

Reviewed by Douglas F. Olena

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Contents

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, African Charismatics: Current Development within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana ………………………………………………………………………………………. 164

Reviewed by Opoku Onyinah

Edward L. Dalcour, A Definitive Look at Oneness Theology: Defending the Tri-Unity of God …………………………………………………. 166

Reviewed by David A. Reed

Klemet I. Preus, The Fire and the Staff: Lutheran Theology in Practice …………………………………………………………………………………….. 169

Reviewed by Risto Saarinen

John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Gospel ………….. 172

Reviewed by Kevin L. Spawn

Edgar R. Lee, ed., He Gave Apostles. Apostolic Ministry in the 21st Century ……………………………………………………………………………… 174

Reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey

Katherine L. Wiegele, Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Transformation of Popular Catholicism in the Philippines ………….. 176

Reviewed by Lode Wostyn

Wonsuk and Julie Ma, eds., Asian Church and God’s Mission …… 177

Reviewed by Koo Dong Yun

EDITOR’S NOTES …………………………………………………………………… 181

CONTRIBUTOR’S LIST ………………………………………………………….. 183

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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 28, No. 1, Spring 2006

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Editorial

Intelligent Design: Bad Science?

Frank D. Macchia

I was caught completely off guard by the phone call that came to my office from the New York Times reporter. I was in between appointments when the reporter called to talk about the controversy surrounding the intelligent design debate. My mind was not at all on the subject at hand and I felt ill prepared to deal with the more scientific issues at stake. But, as a theologian, I definitely had some things to say! So I said them. The article appeared faithfully quoting me in favor of the view that intelligent design is not making much headway in the academy, not even among evangelical schools, where reception has been mixed. The Times article was picked up by other papers around the country. One such paper even quotes me in support of a headline that calls intelligent design “bad science.” Well, I would not at all go that far. But once one’s words go public, they are subject to journalistic spin. Let me set the record straight about what I think on the subject.

What is intelligent design? Well, some form of intelligent design argu- ment has been around for a long time. The idea that the universe is too complex to have come into being by chance is by no means a new argu- ment. The complexity of creation implies an intelligent designer. I recall one of my Bible college professors saying to us in the early 1970’s that the idea of the universe coming into being by chance is about as likely as the assumption that the Encyclopedia Britannica came into being sud- denly from an explosion in a print shop! But since the 1950’s, research into the complexity of interacting systems on the molecular level has pro- vided fuel for this intelligent design argument and granted it focused specificity. Michael J. Behe’s, Darwin’s Black Box , became a tour de force in intelligent design argument. Though not the only intelligent design argument available, Behe’s principle of “irreducible complexity” became the most discussed of the intelligent design arguments. Put simply, Behe argues that the complexity and interdependence of molecular “machines”

© 2006 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden pp. 1–3

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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 28, No.1, Spring 2006

that govern cellular life cannot have evolved from less complex forms, simply because on a less complex level they would not work! There is an “irreducible complexity” to cellular life, of which Darwin was unaware, that places limitations on evolutionary theory and implies on a very basic level an intelligent designer. Behe does not dismiss evolutionary theory altogether. He simply maintains that “[a]lthough Darwin’s mechanism- natural selection working on variation—might explain many things, however, I do not believe it explains molecular life” (Darwin’s Black Box, p. 5).

I cannot help but be fascinated by the issues surrounding intelligent design. One can discuss it on several levels, from the scientific warrant of the arguments used to the role of intelligent design in the culture wars. What I find interesting as a theologian is the widespread rejection of intel- ligent design among those who have spoken out on the issue from within the scientific academy. Here the assumption is popular that intelligent design is theology and not science. I would say that it is both, and in a way that is inseparable from each other. In other words, when viewed sci- entifically, intelligent design on a molecular level raises a mystery that ultimately cannot be solved. On the other hand, evolutionary theory has vast explanatory power to meaningfully account for a wide diversity of phenomena. It is simply not going to be toppled or called radically into question on the basis of a specific principle that points to the mystery of life’s origins, a mystery that many scientists have long accepted and about which they will freely speculate within the context of evolutionary the- ory. In other words, for many, evolutionary theory has worked too well for science across a vast spectrum of phenomena to be laid aside when confronting the wonders of life on a molecular level in favor of a theologically-relevant intelligent designer.

On the other hand, intelligent design does have vast explanatory power for those looking at life from within a biblical worldview. It allows us to account for the role of evolutionary theory to explain the phenomena of life on a certain level, but we are not at all surprised to find God’s sig- nature when peering into life at its most minute levels of interaction. I am going to show my Barthian colors here and say that this divine signature discovered by Behe was discerned with the aid of his faith worldview and is compelling scientifically from within that worldview. Outside of it, irreducible complexity is at best an ambiguous sign of God at the origin of the world that is subject to alternative explanations and lacking in explanatory breadth and force outside of the biblical worldview that grants it meaning. It was Emerson who said that God provides just enough

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Intelligent Design: Bad Science?

evidence in the world to support the faith of those who will to believe but not so much as to compel faith among those who do not will to believe. Though intelligent design will play a role in theological apologetic classes, it will likely not make any inroads in the scientific academy. Maybe it will cause some within that academy to pause and consider that the mystery at the base of life points to a transcendent mystery. It will be our task to grant that mystery a name and a narrative. It will be the Spirit’s task to make these compelling. Intelligent design is not at all “bad science,” only science from within a faith perspective.

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