October 1st marks the 50th anniversary of the appearance of “In God We Trust” on the paper currency of the United States. The phrase, which is the nation’s official motto as well, has been caught in a broader debate over just how high the wall separating church and state should stand.
Why has religion persisted in the West after the Enlightenment? Did the nature of Christianity itself push us toward secularism? Mark Lilla offers some answers in The Stillborn God, which is reviewed in the New York Times Book Review today
“I think they’re pushing us because they want to polarize the issue,” said Bishop Parsley of Alabama, who did not vote for Robinson. “The primates want us to say that we don’t approve public rites of blessing, and we have not done that. They don’t want us to approve gay bishops, and the 2006 general convention resolution makes that unlikely. Basically, what I’m saying is that what they are asking is essentially already the case.”
Is an acceptance of neo-Darwinian evolution possible for a Christian? Catholic theologian Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., offer three different Christian approaches to reconciling scientific evidenc eof evolution with faith in a creating God.
O eternal God,
Turn us into the arms and hands,
The legs and feet
Of your beloved Son, Jesus.