The Theology Workshop cordially invites you to participate in the upcoming workshop with Andrew DeCort, 2nd year PhD student in Religious Ethics, on Monday, January 23rd, 12:00-1:30 PM, in Swift 201.

“Theology as Freedom: Scripture, Sovereignty, Creationality, and Civilization”

In his presentation, Andrew will analyze two competing logics surrounding Evangelical interpretations of biblical authority. On one hand, Evangelicals would agree that (1) God created a good world that quickly rebelled against God, (2) that God covenanted Godself with people that were repeatedly unfaithful to God, and (3) that God’s continued presence and action among us is the clearest sign of God’s own faithful love for the world. Rather than engineering a world or a history that is “infallible” or “inerrant,” we see God giving and affirming creaturely freedom, co-creativity, and co-authority, what he will call a logic of “creationality.” On the other hand, Evangelicals insist that Scripture is an exception from this pattern, in which God works so successfully that Scripture remains spotless from error or internal disagreement, which he interprets as a logic of “sovereignty.” We will interrogate the argument that the Evangelical doctrine of a Scripture that cannot fail betrays the wider biblical commitment to a God who does not work through unmediated, absolute force but through mediated, response-able inter-action, which leaves room for Scripture to be a) authoritative and b) accompanied with error, which c) isolates the continuing demand for genuinely critical-and-committed reading and action.

Julius Crump, 1st year PhD student in Theology, will respond. The paper will be available through the Theology Workshop listserve, but no advance preparation is expected of participants. Lunch will be provided.