A Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture

by Carol A. Hill

There are a number of well-known areas of disagreement when it comes to discussions of the relationship between Christianity and science--most relating to the early chapters of Genesis. Observing that the traditional Christian positions, such as Young Earth and Evolutionary Creation, fail to properly account for the relevant theology, science, and history, geologist Carol Hill instead proposes a Worldview Approach. This approach seeks to uphold fundamental Christian doctrines while also taking into account the findings of modern science, and recognizing the prescientific worldview of the biblical authors. Hill argues that numerous apparent conflicts between Scripture and science can be resolved by understanding the ancient worldview of the Scriptural authors and how it differs from our modern, scientific worldview. This framework opens the door to resolving longstanding points of contention including: The six days of creation The Garden of Eden The numbers and chronologies of Genesis Noah's flood Evolution Adam and Eve
For each of these topics, Hill explains the meaning of the relevant biblical passages, the scientific data, and how the Worldview Approach resolves apparent conflicts. Anyone who has wrestled with these topics will find A Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture to be an invaluable resource for truly understanding the biblical texts and scientific findings, as well as discovering new solutions for these controversies.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Carol Hill is a geologist who has worked in the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Cavern for over 40 years. She is the author of a number of books, and has been featured on NOVA and National Geographic TV. Her other publications include Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth, as senior editor and co-author. Carol teaches geology at the University of New Mexico.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: This book proposes that a worldview approach offers the best prospect of reconciling scripture and science, taking both seriously.

I've reviewed a number of books on scripture and science on this blog. This stands apart in many respects, one of which is the size of the book, the quality of the paper, and the lavish artwork, photography, charts, and graphs with which it is illustrated in full color on fine paper. It may equally serve as a coffee table book, or a supplemental text in an apologetics, biology or geology course in a Christian college setting. The author, a geologist teaching at the University of New Mexico has both the scientific background and familiarity with biblical scholarship to assemble this text.

Hill's approach is one that has a high commitment both to the biblical text and the findings of science. She describes this as a "worldview approach," following John Walton and other biblical scholars. She contends that we must read Genesis through the eyes of the pre-scientific worldview that informed the text of Genesis. By doing so, we rightly handle the text, rather than importing modern scientific concerns into that text.

A good example is the cosmology of the Ancient Near East and how it informs both our reading of Genesis 1 and the flood accounts of Genesis 6-9, allowing what is described as a "global" flood to be just that--a flood that covered everything in the known world of the observers, but yet was local. Likewise the six day sequence of creation consisting of three days of forming, and three days of filling with its numerous repetitions reflects a literary structure, not uncommon in the Ancient Near East, and memorable for readers and hearers.

At the same time, the author takes the existence of a real Adam and Eve in a real Garden of Eden seriously and explores the possible geographic location of that Garden, which she proposes might be about 100 miles northwest of Basra in present day Iraq. Later in the book, in coming back to the real existence of Adam and Eve, she discusses the possibility of pre-Adamite homo sapiens, with whom the offspring of Adam and Eve mated after expulsion from the garden, evidence of which we find in Genesis. She explores the numbers in the chronologies, noting the numerological interpretation of these numbers and the gaps in genealogies that make these both significant theological accounts, and totally irrelevant to the date of Adam and Eve or the age of the earth. The author argues for the flood as a historical, but extensive local event, probably around 2900 BC in Mesopotamia, looking at other records, and using studies of weather patterns to show how such a flood may have been possible. She discusses how the ark could have flowed up-gradient to Ararat from, counter to the prevailing flow of water into the Persian Gulf. Using her geological training, and familiarity with the American southwest, she demonstrates how it is just not possible to explain the Grand Canyon by "flood geology" that would contend that it was carved out, with all its layers of rock, in a year.

The upshot is a book that acknowledges the historic and literary elements of Genesis 1-11, and yet does not rule out the scientific accounts of the origins of the earth 4.58 billion years ago, the formation of the earth's surfaces through geologic process over long time spans, and the rise of life along an evolutionary creationist model that does not try to force fit science into the Genesis 1 narrative. Her argument is that the worldview of the biblical writers as it shapes the writing of these scriptures does not require of us the gymnastics of trying to fit our scientific knowledge into either young earth or day-age approaches, but upholds what scripture affirms, read through Ancient Near Eastern eyes, as well as what science has revealed, finding no inherent conflict between them.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

[Gregg Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carol Hill is one of those rare individuals who is not content with understanding earth and human history from just a scientific, or archeological, or theological perspective. Though her primary field of expertise is in geology, she has also spent a lifetime studying the archaeological and theological evidence and arguments for how the Bible should be understood, particularly the first eleven chapters of Genesis. She wraps all the evidence together in what she refers to as a worldview approach, one that embraces modern science, considers the culture into which the Bible was revealed, and affirms an orthodox faith in the core doctrines of the Christian faith. In Carol’s view, the Bible does not yield to science, but science and archaeology can nonetheless serve as legitimate tools for understanding what the Bible meant to the original audience. The result is an argument for belief in an actual creation, Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden, and Noah’s flood and ark, but within the context of the genealogy and regional experience of the nation and people of Israel. It is a view that leaves ample room for and embraces an earth and universe billions of years in age, adaptation of life forms over time, and the physical evolution of humans.
Carol does an excellent job of providing detailed explanations in defense of her view on things like the timing of Adam and Eve, the natural processes that could have contributed to a massive flood and landing of the ark, and the use of symbolic numbers by cultures of the Ancient Near East. The book is designed with non-experts in mind, and is filled with beautiful full-color artwork and photographs. I expect the book to become a commonly referenced work in the ongoing science-faith discussion.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that helps make sense of the perceived tension between science and the Bible - they don't have to be adversaries.

[Robert Terrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here worldview perspective is quite interesting.

[Dwight Croy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science leans toward trumping scripture in this book. However, the explanation of the Mesopotamian numbering system was quite good.