re SOUL & SCIENCE CONFERENCE @ BIOLA, MAY 10-11 , 2013
Miscellaneous images of various speakers at the soul & science conference... all of whom addressed various issues related to soul and/or being ....some more or less connecting our "identity" to God...the words "dualism" and "monism" and "cartesian" some of the more frequent philosophical words heard quite often ...
...some defended "traditional soul" JP Moreland, (Biola) in particular, made a comment in defense of the traditional "lay understanding" of soul...also John Cooper (Calvin Seminary) defended the Bible as "infallible" despite some rather fierce Q&A aimed at him after his speech,...
...a few made reference to Nancey Murphy...which, by the way, happens to be what indirectly drew me into my interest in soul & the defense of traditional soul from a Christian perspective...; prior to coming to Fuller Seminary from Calvin Seminary I had NEVER heard or thought or even known about any Christian views that did not presume the traditional notion of soul...
...it wasn't until my academic advisor (who I subsequently "fired" i.e. I switched to somebody else) simply signed me up to be in a class with Nancey Murphy that I became aware of a non-traditional view of soul (or lack of)...and it was this antagonistic relationship I had in the classroom with Nancey Murphy that led me to virtually despise her as a person...and dig in my heels to find out more about defending "traditional soul" ...
...of course persons such as Murphy et al. are PHILOSOPHERS...more than they are theologians or clergy or ministers of the church...so suddenly somebody relatively "simple" such as myself is thrust into a world of new ideas, concepts, & language...fairly alien to what I presupposed or expected to be learning and hearing at a seminary that claims to be training young (& some old) persons to be pastors....
....in some ways I think it is UNFAIR ...maybe even unethical to thrust persons such as myself into a classroom such as Nancey Murphy's ... honestly I had NEVER even heard her name prior to walking into that classroom before...we didn't read her material at Calvin College or in Reformed Church circles.., nor even at Calvin Seminary was I aware of her...maybe later on in seminary they may mention some things about dualism etc, but at least while I was there I heard or saw nothing about Nancey Murphy and any non-traditional ideas of soul...
also see video at
...furthermore, Later I came to find out that even Richard Mouw is in the same circle as Nancey Murphy when it comes to not believing in the traditional sense of soul...or not believing in soul at all.. this was even MORE shocking because Mouw taught philosophy at Calvin College for many years...and I presupposed he believed in the Reformed Creed which as far as I know includes a traditional belief in soul.. at least I had never heard anybody (pastors, professors et al from the CRC /Calvin College) say anything otherwise..
...and thus I have grudgingly taken on the tedious task of trying to figure out what the hell (sorry for using non-churchy language but it does express how ornery this makes me) people are talking about when they use all the complex philosophical language such as dualism, monism, non-reductive physicalism, et al... it's not something that becomes clear & obvious over night for a simple person such as myself..
...but I get the gist of who is defending traditional Christian notions of soul as opposed to who isn't..., and again I think it's unethical to place persons such as myself into classrooms such as that of a Nancey Murphy (& Mouw for that matter in retrospect) without telling us that they do not have a traditional belief in soul...or a belief in soul at all...there should be asterisks by their names on the syllabus at registration...and/or the academic advisor should be giving a fair warning...
...nonetheless, I spent two days at this conference listening to the various presentations..and the Q & A and panel discussions.... and will continue to DEFEND tradtional soul... and the importance of the salvation of souls before we die... that's ALL I know.. praise the Lord...I guess all I need to know for now..
" If u declare with your mouth,
“Jesus is Lord,” &
believe in your
HEART
that God
raised Him
from the dead,
u will be saved."
GREETINGS ! I INVITE U2 accept JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD & SAVIOR TODAY, RIGHT NOW, OR ANYTIME, & BE SAVED ! Don't wait until it is TOO LATE. Don't Hesitate. The consequences are TOO GREAT.! Humble yourself. You CANNOT do it alone. None of us can. Guaranteed 100% FAILURE RATE for those who try to GO IT ALONE. Kneel down now and say to Jesus, "Sorry & Thank you, I surrender to YOU, LORD, & Commit my LIFE 2 U, now & forever"
