As the host of his own podcast, No Small Endeavor, Lee C. Camp is well-practiced at conversations that explore what human flourishing could look like. In this conversation, he looks back to his own experiences in which doors were opened to him in his thinking about faith. He tells about his journey from preaching sermons against the theory of evolution to coming to understand that scientific knowledge about the world was not a threat to his faith, even when that knowledge presented new and challenging questions.
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It warmed my heart to be able to hear Lee sharing about his experiences here (and I haven’t even had the chance to finish listening to it yet … but look forward to getting back to that tonight…) because I remember reading one of Lee’s books a decade or two back, titled “Mere Discipleship.” And perhaps the subtitle may have been something like “Our Constantinian Cataract” or something like that … a phrase I think I remember getting from that book, anyway.
In any case, it excited me at the time to see groups other than Anabaptists wrestling with the problem of what the addition of state power does to pretty much any religion (spoiler: it’s never good). Yeah, I know, it is a widely known problem and has been for a long time; but sometimes one gets the impression their own group is more alone than they really are.
Camp’s book was not only a good bit of historical education for me, but a breath of fresh air as well! Thanks for bringing him here! (Or thank you, Mr. Camp, in case you’re reading this directly.)
-Merv
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Having gone through a dramatic young earth creationist to evolutionary creationist conversion story myself, it was interesting hearing Lee Camp’s story and comparing it to my own story. I had a similar experience when I learned more about how and why Biblical literature was composed and the importance of genre. As I learned more about the original purpose of Genesis and how it was composed, it seemed more like I was just reading modern ideas into the ancient text. This is not to say that Genesis was does not reveal truth about creation. It is just that the truth in Genesis 1 has more to do with God’s relationship with creation than the material origins of creation itself.
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I need to get to know this man and his work better. Like @jbabraham88 and so many others, I’m sick and tired from culture warring in the church. This was a breath of fresh air. Thanks!
Nicely stated. Indeed recognizing the literary genres and reading the accounts accordingly yields a far richer set of messages than just “material origins of creation”.