Hello Dr. Hunter,
I hope that your spirit has been refreshed on this Lord’s Day.
I think you caught only half of what N.T. Wright said about evolution. You accurately quote what he says about the way that many (e.g., Richard Dawkins) have infused evolution with the mission of disproving God’s providential involvement with creation. However, you are very much confused when you claim that the theory of evolution is our modern day Epicureanism. This is exactly the opposite of what N.T. Wright claims.
Here are some key points about evolution N.T. Wright makes in Surprised by Scripture:
(1) Epicureans try to use the theory of evolution to dispel our trust in God’s providential involvement with us. Wright calls this effort “Evolutionism-with-a-capital-E” to distinguish it from the scientific theory that common descent is the best explanation for a large body of evidence.
The cross is, and Jesus always said it was, the subversion of all human power systems. The cross is the central thing that demonstrates the impossibility of the metaphysically inflated Evolution-with-a-capital-E. [original emphasis]
(2) We must reject the Epicurean stance that tries to force us to choose between two supposed opposites: (1) believing God directly intervened, vs. (2) it all just happened without any involvement by God.
Just because we observe evolution, that doesn’t mean there can’t be a god who is active within that process as well as beyond and above it. … Science by itself doesn’t force you to be an Epicurean. The God of the Bible and the processes of his creation do not constitute a zero-sum game, as so many in our culture still assume.
Note that Wright states that “we observe evolution.” Yes, he is affirming that it is appropriate to speak of the lower-e theory of evolution as a process that has been observed by science.
And he affirms that Epicureanism is something that stands apart from evolution itself (“Science by itself doesn’t force you to be an Epicurean”).
(3) Our confrontation with the theory of evolution provides us with an opportunity to correct an implicit Epicureanism that has crept into our own theology. Just as we can rescue the valid science of lower-e evolutionary theory from the fangs of neo-Epicureans like Dawkins, we can rescue our own theology from an implicit Epicureanism that depicts the kingdom of heaven as something that has no involvement or continuity with our earthly lives.
I think what has happened is this. The neo-Epicurean teaching of which we are all aware, the capital-E Evolutionism that has produced a metaphysical inflation from a proven hypothesis about the physical world to a naturalistic worldview–this modernist teaching has exposed a flank that perhaps needed exposing. … The Bible is not about the rescue of humans from the world but about the rescue of humans for the world, and indeed God’s rescue of the world by means of those rescued humans.
Note that Wright calls the theory of (lower-e) evolution a “proven hypothesis.” Lower-e evolution is not Epicureanism; it is merely a scientific understanding (a “proven hypothesis”) of how the world and life that God created actually work.
I hope you have found these quotes from Bishop Wright to be as edifying as I found them. Thanks, and may the Lord bless your ministry at Biola.
Chris Falter