Biologos is holding an invitation-only workshop on theistic evolution in New York City:
The first workshop is scheduled for the fall of 2009, and is co-sponsored by the Rev. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Church in New York’s leading evangelical fellowship. This meeting is intended to build bridges and enable comfortable communication channels between respected evangelical scientists working on origins and key religious leaders in the evangelical Christian church. Invitations have been extended to 15 leading scientists, 15 leading theologians, and 15 leading pastors.
The invite list is a secret:
But who else will attend is being kept a secret, as is the exact location of the meeting (which will be somewhere in New York). The reason? According to BioLogos, some attendees want their participation in the closed meeting to remain confidential.
Biologos got $2,028,238 for its website and this event from the Templeton Foundation:
The invitation-only workshops will bring scientists and evangelical leaders together to seek a theology more accepting of science, specifically evolutionary biology.
Bruce Waltke, in an essay posted on the BioLogos website in anticipation of the workshop, recommended dialogue with Intelligent Design proponents:
The organizations seeking to refute evolution and/or to narrow the gap between creation and evolution must address one another with respect and openness to be optimally effective. The gap between BioLogos and ID, I suggest, can best be narrowed by open dialogue, not by entrenched confrontation.
Seven white papers will be published at the end of the workshop. Among the authors are Mark Noll, Bruce Waltke and Tim Keller.
It will be interesting to see whether any ID proponents were invited and whether any genuine dialogue takes place.
Hi PDS,
One clarification first: My understanding is that the Templeton grant was for the entire biologos project – the website and that conference are just one of many projects they are involved with.
Re: dialogue between TE & ID proponents, I agree that that would be useful, and there have been some interesting posts on this on the ASA list recently (not sure if you are an ASA member). Anyways, I think what is more interesting is the dialogue between “orthodox Christians who share a high view of the scriptures” (lets call this group OC) in both groups – ie. the OC-TE and OC-ID dialogue. I’m not that interested in discussing the ideas that are more applicable to for eg. process theology TE’s or for eg. deist IDers.
Steve,
Thanks for your comment. I think you are right on the first point. I agree with you on the second point.
[...] 24, 2010 by PDS I previously discussed a paper by Bruce Waltke in which he stated: The organizations seeking to refute evolution and/or to [...]