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I’m still not quite so sure what I think about this (or how I can fit this into the topics of my blog), but Yahoo! Odd News published an article where the Vatican approved believing in God as well as believing in aliens.

As a limited sci-fi fan (Star Wars and some Star Trek TNG) I have often thought about what the theological implications might be of the discovery of intelligent aliens creatures (somehow I am able to rationalize around non-intelligent life). Some say that CS Lewis has addressed this issue in his Space Trilogy but (only having read the first book) I think he is using sci-fi to prove his theological point with an allegory.

I think what bothers me is the alleged implications for my faith if there are other intelligent creatures in the universe. Have they, too, been created in the image of God? Did they fall with Adam? Could Jesus die for their sins as a human? What about the validity of their religious beliefs? This is an issue of apologetics.

If aliens suddenly appeared would that destroy my faith in Christ? No. It might cause me to redefine some things: what it means to be created in God’s image or what the humanity of Christ might mean as far as the atonement goes, for instance. Like a Big-Bang my understanding of God and his creation would explode while not destroying my faith.

I’ve been waiting on this book for a while and finally got to it a week or so ago. Although I have only had time to read a chapter (and the introduction) I am impressed and think this book could be everything I’ve looked forward to.

For one Carson’s world is very different than Niebuhr’s. This is clear from Niebuhr’s initial definition of “culture.” He, as many critics notice, almost takes “culture” for granted in his homogeneous 1950s WASP post WWII United States world. As Carson notes, today the world is much more multicultural. This is a point a brother of mine from India has brought to my attention. As I work through the issues of Christ and Culture, I hope the web will help more people from outside the United States will contribute to this discussion. Meanwhile I look forward to reading Carson’s book and seeing how multiculturalism affects Christ and Culture.

There is one problem I found with Carson’s initial description of Niebuhr, however. Although this slight exegetical error might have no real bearing, I think it misunderstands his categories. Carson correctly notes there are two radical positions in Niebuhr’s paradigm: Christ Against Culture and Christ of Culture. However he mis-labels the three remaining perspectives as all being Christ Above Culture. He stumbles over himself a little as he maintains that Christ Above Culture is both a perspective and category that includes itself along with Christ and Culture in Paradox and Christ Transforming Culture.

The error is that Niebuhr separates the first two perspectives as “extreme” ones and the later three as “centrist” not Christ Above Culture. As Niebuhr says (page 119-120):

Despite common characteristics, the Christians of the center do not constitute one ordered group in their attack on the Christ-culture problem. There are at least three distinguishable families among them; and each of them may at special times or on certain specific issues find itself more closely allied to one of the extreme parties than to the other movements in the central church. We have named them synthesists, dualists, and conversionists; and shall now try to give representatives of each.

This confusion might come from the fact that Niebuhr introduces the centrist positions in his chapter on Christ Above Culture.

I hope this distinction is helpful by offering more clarity and not nit-picky.

I’m not a big N.T. Wright fan- because of how his theology has tried and is used to attack justification by faith- but in a Newsweek interview with him about something else, he gave a good definition of what it means to promote Christ Transforming Culture.

How do you reconcile your orthodox theology with your progressive politics?
The task of government in the present is to anticipate the eventual sorting out of all things, and the task of the church in the present is to remind governments that that is their job. The resurrection gives you a sense of what God wants to do for the whole world, and it gives the church the courage to say, “God’s new world has actually begun already.” The church can then say to the powers that be, whether it’s George W. Bush or Gordon Brown or the United Nations, “We are urging you to do justice, and we’re going to hold your feet to the fire and go on reminding you when you’re getting it wrong and congratulating you when you’re getting it right.”