Distinctive Christianity

146. Vern Poythress on Redeeming Science


Listen Later

In this interview, we welcome Dr. Vern Poythress to discuss his book Redeeming Science: A God Centered Approach. Given the predominant view of conflict between science and religion, how do we as Christians faithfully approach both Scripture and the world around us? What is scientific law, and how is it an “analogous mystery” of the attributes of the Triune God? Why is there so much naturalistic philosophy masquerading as the findings of science? How do we affirm the (real) science without affirming the “metaphysical musings” of scientists? Is there any room for outside considerations when approaching the text of Scripture? Vern takes us through these questions and more, as we do a deep-dive into how faithful Christians should approach all that God has revealed. Christians can affirm the ordinary and the complexity of specialized knowledge as we – based on Scripture – develop what Dr. Poythress calls the “Standpoint of Nonreductive Affirmation of Comprehensive Coherence”. 

 

Book: Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach 

Website  

Some other books by Dr. Poythress: 

  • Interpreting Eden: A Guide to Faithfully Reading and Understanding Genesis 1-3 
  • Science and Hermeneutics 
  • Making Sense of Man: Using Biblical Perspectives to Develop a Theology of Humanity 
  • Making Sense of the World: How the Trinity Helps to Explain Reality 
  • Redeeming Mathematics 
  • Redeeming Philosophy 
  • The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation 
  • The Mystery of the Trinity 
  • Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible 
  • Inerrancy and the Gospels: A God-Centered Approach to the Challenge of Harmonization 
  • “Dispensing with Merely Human Meaning: Gains and Losses from Focusing on the Human Author, Illustrated by Zephaniah 1:2-3"  
  • “Counterfeiting in the Book of Revelation as a Perspective on Non-Christian Culture” 
  • Lecture: Design in Language 

 

Other resources: 

  • Westminster Confession 1.7 
  • “A Conditional Resolution of the Apparent Paradox of Self-Deception" by Greg Bahnsen (also see here, and here
  • “Why I Believe in God?” by Cornelius Van Til 
  • Commentary on Genesis (2 Vol.’s) by John Calvin 
  • A Christian View of Science and Scripture by Bernard Ramm 
  • Richard Dawkins by Ransom Poythress 
  • The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath 
  • The Bible Among the Myths by John Oswalt 
  • Religion and the Rise of Modern Science by R. Hooykaas 
  • The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science; The Bible, Protestantism and the rise of natural science by Peter Harrison 
  • The Savior of Science; The Origins of Science and the Science of Its Origins by Stanley Jaki 
  • Admirable Evasions by Theodore Dalrymple 
  • Confessions; The City of God; The Literal Meaning of Genesis by Augustine 
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Distinctive ChristianityBy Brendon Scoggin and Skyler Hamilton