11AR16-02

Apologia Report 16:2 (1,052)

January 19, 2011

Subject: MORMONISM: Signs of theological schizophrenia

In this issue:

BIBLICAL RELIABILITY - responding to Bart Ehrman's antagonism

HINDUISM - update on the Take Back Yoga campaign

MORMONISM - LDS academic acknowledges "schizophrenic" church trend in wanting acceptance while proclaiming its distinct theology

ORIGINS - John Lennox responds to Steven Hawking's Grand Design

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BIBLICAL RELIABILITY

There can never be enough good, brief introductions to the confusion caused by Bart Ehrman's attacks on biblical reliability. So we happily recommend Don Veinot's article "Interrupting Ehrman: Are There Biblical Contradictions?" in the MCOI Journal (Fall '10, p1).

Veinot reflects on a March 2010 debate he attended between Ehrman and Craig Evans (Professor of New Testament, Acadia University, Nova Scotia). He opens by noting that Ehrman's approach ("One cannot trust the evidence, because it was gathered by biased people.") was also successfully used by O.J. Simpson's "dream team" defense lawyers.

Veinot describes Ehrman's unusual starting point of making an assertion as if it were an air-tight case for the late dating of the New Testament text's origin. Additionally, Veinot notes Ehrman's efforts to "poison the evidence" by appealing to controversy in areas such as the authority of Mark's Gospel. Last, Veinot devotes significant attention to Ehrman's efforts to present seeming contradictions in the biblical text.

Visit <www.ehrmanproject.com> for much more along these lines.

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HINDUISM

"Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga's Soul" by Paul Vitello (New York Times) -- includes helpful chronology and background. The author reports that the Hindu American Foundation (hafsite.org) "has ignited a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga by mounting a campaign to acquaint Westerners with the faith that it says underlies every single yoga style followed in gyms, ashrams and spas: Hinduism. ...

"'In a way,' said Dr. Aseem Shukla, the foundation's co-founder, 'our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand.' ...

"Dr. Shukla put a sharper point on his case ... in a column on the On Faith blog of The Washington Post <www.j.mp/cjLKwt>. Hinduism, he wrote, had become a victim of 'overt intellectual property theft,' made possible by generations of Hindu yoga teachers who had 'offered up a religion's spiritual wealth at the altar of crass commercialism.' ...

"Loriliai Biernacki, a professor of Indian religions at the University of Colorado, said the debate had raised important issues about a spectrum of Hindu concepts permeating American culture, including meditation, belief in karma and reincarnation, and even cremation.

"'All these ideas are Hindu in origin, and they are spreading,' she said. 'But they are doing it in a way that leaves behind the proper name, the box that classifies them as "Hinduism."'

"The debate has also secured the standing of the Hindu American Foundation as the pre-eminent voice for the country's two million Hindus, said Diana L. Eck, a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard. Other groups represent Indian-Americans' interests in business and politics, but the foundation has emerged as 'the first major national advocacy group looking at Hindu identity,' she said. ...

"The September issue of Yoga Journal, which has the largest circulation in the field, alluded to the campaign, if fleetingly, in an article calling yoga's 'true history a mystery.'" Times of India, Nov 28 '10, n.p. <www.j.mp/eJMqiU>

Writing for GetReligion, journalist Mollie Ziegler's comments on the Vitello piece above includes valuable insights on related bias and context. <www.j.mp/fUPl2v>

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MORMONISM

"LDS Don't Get Theological Respect Because They Seek and Shun Mainstream Acceptance, Prof Says" by Kristen Moulton -- explains that "Defensiveness has left Mormonism in a pickle, according to one of the Utah-based faith's leading intellectuals." The LDS academic referred to is Terryl Givens, "professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond in Virginia."

Givens finds that "Starting with [founder Joseph] Smith, ... the church's message has been more about claiming compatibility with mainstream Christianity than proclaiming its distinct theology. "'You could almost see a fractured sense in his [Smith's] writing of the Articles of Faith,' Givens said, responding to a question from the audience of about 300 after his talk [on November 11 as the keynote speaker at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium at Brigham Young University]. 'It's as if he's going back and forth.' "'Mormons are still characterized by that kind of schizophrenia,' said Givens....

"One early LDS apostle, Parley P. Pratt, took a different public-relations approach, Givens said. In tracts and debates, Pratt unabashedly proclaimed the distinct doctrines of the church such as man's deification and God's embodiment, Givens said. Pratt was trying to get the critics to engage the new faith's theological claims.

"'I've always admired his pluck,' said Givens, whose biography of Pratt, co-written with Matthew Grow, will be published next year. [1]

"'Pratt's attitude seemed to be Christendom was a ship about to sink and Mormonism had the lifeboats,' Givens said. Pratt resisted the impulse of most Mormons to head back to the foundering ship." Salt Lake Tribune, Nov 11 '10, n.p. <www.j.mp/d2TOFZ>

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ORIGINS

Big waves were generated by the media when Steven Hawking came out with his book, The Grand Design [2], in which he argues that God did not create the Universe. We were glad to learn from rzim.org that "Seeking to counter this notion with a Christian perspective, in an article written for the UK's Daily Mail [www.j.mp/9IQCxT] John Lennox argues that physical laws alone cannot explain the universe's existence, and poses the question of what created those laws in the first place."

If you're not familiar with Lennox, Wikipedia notes that he is "Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College. [He] has lectured extensively in both Eastern and Western Europe, Russia and North America on mathematics, apologetics and the exposition of Scripture."

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Parley P. Pratt: The Saint Paul of Mormonism, by Terryl Givens with Matthew Grow (Oxford Univ Prs, 2011 [projected]) <www.j.mp/fGopkA>

2 - The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (Bantam, 2010, hardcover, 208 pages) <www.j.mp/eYIxPu>

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