New Perspectives on Christianity Conference at Avondale College 20-21 July 2011 (day one)

Kyungpook National University

Visiting Professor

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

28 July 2011

This conference was held for two days from 8h30-4h15. The organizers of the conference have a wide angle lense why they organized it at Avondale College. Avondale College is definitely ready to be pronounced a university by the Australian government. Delay for such a step could raise the eyebrows from internationals attending the conference.

My comments are given addressing the academic view points from my Christian experience. As Seventh-day Adventist Christian I do not enter the conference with an empty mind. I bring with me a baggage of my own ideas, research, world-view and perspectives. As such, I am not intending to bury those views. Comments on the papers may not be out of place here.

The kick-off of the conference was the first paper by Graham Stacey from Loma Linda University. He paper was "Viewpoints on Homosexuality in Christian Communities". Typical of Loma Linda University, the paper shocked the believing Adventists attending from beginning to end. He was trying to explain that one has to live authentic in a world although there is a variety of imputs in our experiences and values which makes us not properly aligned with one another. People have internal competing values. Side comments of Stacey disturbed the biblical theologian very quickly. He did not discuss the 7/8 texts dealing with homosexuality in the scriptures. What he did is to say that Leviticus talking about it, is outdated by 2000 years and cannot address what it means, only what it meant. The Bible was written off as a too old a book to guide us with our experiences in the modern society which requires a permissiveness to accommodate sin, including homosexuality. Stacey overlooked that this attitude is as old as the day Satan talked to Eve for the first time. "Is it not true that ....". Stacey rejected the principle so well known in Adventism that God loves the sinner but hates sin. He argues for a more accommodative approach in Adventism for Homosexuals. Stacey did not see the site in the Jerusalem Post that says that Homosexuality is a disease and if people want to be cured from it, they should call a specific number. It is not only Adventists who are saying it is a disease. Stacey is working with a fallacy in his methodology of interpreting the Scriptures. Knowingly or unknowingly, the books he is using to substantiate his biblical understanding from, is based upon the Eichrodtian paradigm for Old Testament Theology. Eichrodt made the error that he used the axiom that what is in the Old Testament, the data, is the complete data of the past and this holistic data can be quantitatively analyzed. Volume of texts on a certain idea then meant that it is a reflection of the reality of the past. Few texts no idea many texts fuller idea and so the developmental fallacy of ideas of the Old Testament for Theology was born. It is just the opposite. When the law was written upon the hearts of Adam, Henoch and Noah it was not necessary to give the Law as it was to Moses. It was necessary to provide the Law to Moses in 1448 BCE because the people forgot the precepts or some of it or most of it. Stacey was not aware of this fallacy in the methodology of Eichrodt and neither was all the scholars who used his books on Old Testament Theology. Adventists guard against this type of methodological error since it becomes a building block in the hermeneutics of scripture that takes all ideas offroad.

The next paper was by Glenda Jackson "God: Benevolent Dictator or Something Else? Implications on Christian Views of Democracy, Fundamentalism and Human Identity". She just completed her doctoral at the University of Monash. What Jackson did is to take the conventional philosophical views of her professors and recent books on philosophy and developed her own structure or view of true philosophy. Wisdom which comprise of judgment means responsibility, differentiation, true. Choice comprise of consequences means autonomy, cause and effect and rondomness. Relationship involves time, relationship, interdependence, and process. Lastly, selfnessless comprise of Alpha and Omega, completeness and fullness. The key to success in life and for the new Christian is RARCS which is responsibility, autonomy, relationship, governance, selflessness. With a proper understanding of these aspects, Jackson feels that one cannot go wrong. We had a difference that we talked about at tea-break and that is her question whether "You shall not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden" is a dictum or a cause and effect. My answer was "both" but she insisted that it is only cause and effect and that is how she developed it in her scheme. In the beginning was the Word and the Word spoke and things became through cause and effect, of the dictum or word of course. Jackson was very aware that her scheme was arguing with Richard Dawkins the atheist. Not only was she using a term that he used in the preface to his book describing God of the Old Testament as a "benevolent dictator" she also used his name in her second lecture explicitly. The best defense against Dawkins is probably the youtube.com video of Ben Steinberg vs Richard Dawkins.

Elizabeth Ostring talked about "New Perspectives on Work". She went through the history of the concept of work and trends through the ages. She has found that the insights of Luther and Calvin had strong influences to attitudes to work and that after the Second World War there was an explosion of theologies of work. Two main theologies were at play: Classical Protestant theologies of work that emphasizes the importance of vocation, calling. Recent Catholic theology of work embraces the idea of co-creationism, which is also becoming more accepted by Protestant theologians. Blessings link work and worship. In our understanding care is called for, not to Ostring's view, but to sharing the Catholic view of co-creationism. Catholics live with an eschatology framework that is taking what happens at the end of time and carrying it in to the role of the church through the centuries and the role of the church today. Environmentalism is thus helping to create a new world order, bringing heaven on earth now instead of at the end of time. Co-creationism is that philosophy that wants to create an ergatism that is based on the fallacy that people can create on earth their own heavens. Adventist Eschatology cannot accommodate this view at all.

Nathan Brown talked on "Receiving Evangelism as Authentic, Credible Witness". He was arguing for a shift from business evangelism that is interested in numbers only, accountability, to an evangelism that is more progressive in its approach. When he heard that Great Controversy is to be published and distributed throughout the country, he was not satisfied. The proposals by Brown was very disturbing and out of touch with Classical Adventism. It is not known whether he is only shortly an Adventist or a coming back of a wayward son. At any rate, he would not have gotten far with his suggestions in a South African context, both members and ministers. It is conceivable that also in an Australian context, members may not agree with his views as was revealed in personal conversation with some members.

Bev Christian talked about "Christian Teachers . . . or . . .Teaching Christianity? A worldview approach to integrating faith and learning in a specific discipline area". She was suggesting that instead of a didactic approach one must allow freedom to the students with a self discovery inductive method of teaching. A personal exploration of a worldview was encouraged throughout the semester. The result of the application of this method is that at the end the students revealed an increase in articulating their own personal worldview. It is very important that students start developing their own worldview as early as possible. She was considering University Freshman. One can maybe also say that the didactic approach is necessary from the earliest age in the classroom inviting constantly the student to inductively imitate or desire that appeal. At a certain age the student flies out of the didactic nest and the inductive method is the meaningful way to articulate their own worldview. Participation of youth in Sabbath school programs in church, testimonies, outreach programs and involvement with church activities is another way of inductively blending their worldview with the accepted norms of Adventism. Dealing with non-SDA's as Christian did in her teaching, since 40% are non-SDA at Avondale, the inductive approach will encourage their motivation without raising their rejection of the sacred. From our perspective there is no way the sacred can be ignored even if the government policy in general requires a focus only on the secular. It has to do with Maslow's 6th need, the need for verticalism.

In the health section of the conference, Dianne Sika-Paotonu talked about "Vision of a World without Cancer". She is from New Zealand and at the University there they are doing cancer research. They are hoping through the injection of immune chemicals to reduce the cancer cells. She then switched after the announcement of the basic work they are doing there, to a testimony of her life and work which was accepted by the audience and honored by the Union representative present.

Steven Thompson talked about Mark 6:5 where Jesus could not do any power there except small and the laying on of hands healing. His paper title was "Jesus as Therapist". The Greek word is that it is a therapy of hand touch. Thompson argued that Jesus ministry did not only include the healing by miracles but that home remedies were also used by Christ. While the Evangelists intended some healing accounts to be read as miraculous and instantaneous, others indicated that Jesus administered therapy and treatment in the process of bringing healing. One caution however, one can raise here for Thompson, is the fact about the reason He could not do miracles there. Verse 6 indicates that they were unfaithful. This is the key. Jesus was not a secular doctor or secular healer. He healed not secular people per se. If they had faith, He could do it instantaneously. If they did not have, then He could not heal them and only perform therapeutic home-remedies. like touch therapies as in Mark 6:5. The other caution is Thompson's phraseology of "what the Evangelists intended" in their record. This is not the approach that is encouraged by Adventist at large. The Holy Spirit was the editor of the gospels using the Evangelists and steering their intentions so that a pure humanistic endeavour to compose the books is out of place in Adventists analysis. Thompson did not elaborate whether he discard the Holy Spirit as active agent in the protection of the truth but one can say in the absence of evidence to the contrary that he did not mean to say a pure humanistic endeavour by the Evangelists.

Marion Shields talked about "Stress and faith: An inversely proportional relationship?". Shields goes through definitions of stress with meanings touching psychological, industrial, relational, and other aspects. She mentioned the stressor, the significance of stress, history of stress with Hans Selye as the "father of stress". At this point I felt that the father of stress is Satan to Eve in the garden of Eden. Theories and models of stress are mentioned. Coping with stress and then a research study was done in which she through interviews were able to access stress factors. The feeling that they have a heavy load of work and not enough time to complete it was the strongest factor of stress. The group that had less stress were those who were faithful. This was an excellent paper by Shields. Shields participated also a few weeks ago with a web-conference that was held between Kyungpook National University on the Sangju Campus and Avondale College in Australia. It was nice to meet her in person.

Ross Grant delivered a paper "A World Beyond Degenerative Disease". His approach was answering what Sika-Paotunu thought would be a good idea to look into in future, in her paper. Lifestyle was one of the aspects that she thought they should look into in New Zealand at their University. Grant provided all the backings for such a possibility. The role of exercise and healthy habits to overall fighting of diseases were stressed by him.

Up to this point in the meetings on the first day, it was dr. Vivienne Watts who was introducing the conference and first speakers and Kevin Price who did the second series on health.

Vivienne Watts also participated in the past with a number of web conferences at Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, and it was a pleasure to meet her as well. Very able and very positive, her role is energetic for the Administration of Avondale College, soon to be declared a University?