Dartmouth Apologia review, Part II

Having offered some general thoughts about the Winter 2011 issue of The Dartmouth Apologia, I would like to now look at each in turn. I will omit the interview with Peter Kreeft because it rather resists criticism, given its nature as an interview. And as before, I encourage you all to read the articles for yourselves before engaging with the reviews that follow.

First off, "Euthyphro's Dilemma and the Goodness of God," by Brendan Woods '13. Woods takes on the ancient Greek philosophical problem of what the implications might be when one considers God's role in determining what constitutes "good." The analysis is thorough and the conclusion sound; the only question I had about this article is why it was written in the first place. Woods wrote a post last March for "Tolle Lege," the Apologia's blog, in which he considered the identical topic. This article is merely an expansion of that earlier piece with relatively little to add to the discussion. Whether or not this expansion was ultimately unnecessary, though, it is certainly a well crafted piece.

This issue's guest piece, "Taking the Bible Seriously," is contributed by Luke Timothy Johnson. Professor Johnson teaches at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. (Incidentally, guest pieces are unique among the Apologia's offerings because they are the only articles not routinely edited for content.) Professor Johnson puts forth an interesting examination of contemporary "schools" of Biblical hermeneutics as compared to historical examples of the same, holding up Origen of Alexandria as an example of someone who really "got it" when it came to how to read and engage with the Bible. The writing style is a little on the polemical side for my taste, and Origen struck me as an odd choice for a protagonist (he was anathematized by the Fifth Ecumenical Council for believing in a hierarchical Trinity, among other things), but Professor Johnson's point about the importance of not skimming but deeply engaging with the Bible is nevertheless well taken.

"Science and Orthodoxy" by Grace Nauman '11 bears the subtitle, "The Faith of Galileo and Kepler." This piece takes on author Nancy Frankenberry's assertion that many of the giants of the Scientific Revolution may have been Christians, but they adhered to an, "Eccentric ... unconventional" theology. Through careful research and exposition, Nauman shows that the two titular scientists were not only not unorthodox but supremely mainstream. She includes an illustrative episode from Kepler's life in which he suffered a minor falling out with the Lutheran church over the doctrine of ubiquity. As it turned out, Kepler was right and later Lutheran theologians overturned the erroneous doctrine. Admittedly, my natural bent runs more toward history than philosophy, but all the same, this was one of my favorite articles in the issue, and I would encourage anyone picking up the journal not to miss it.