Last night I attended the inauguration of Professor Bill Brown as Professor of all things Old Testament. I can think of no one else who deserves the move to tenure more. And I thoroughly enjoyed his inaugural address.
Prof. Brown dedicated the address in part to those of us who arrived at seminary with degrees in science under our belts. The address compared the journal entries of Charles Darwin with the text of Job - both lists and beautiful descriptions of the diversity and creativity in God's creation. Bill's words and slides on powerpoint took me back to days of marine biology, studying the scientific names of 250 fish, cramming for genetics exams, drawing the pictures of cell biology...reminding me that although my heart is following my God, mine is also a heart for science. Listening as science and faith intersected I was encouraged, uplifted, and comforted by Bill's charge to us scientists: Don't forget your science. It will come in handy in ways you cannot now imagine. Don't forget.
I have indeed forgotten the names of most of those 250 fish, but encountering the familiar in both science and biblical text brought my journey full circle for an evening convincing me that indeed, nothing done in the name of God is in vain. Here's to science and to faith forever complementing each other!
1 comment:
I can't believe you've forgotten all those scientific fish names! I remember every last one of them (yeah, right)!
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