From the middle of July to almost the end of August 2024, Dr Graeme Finlay (Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand) graciously agreed to reflect on his poem “A Freed Man’s Worship: The Point of It All,” published as an appendix to his recent article “The Primal Testament: Parallels between Evolutionary and Biblical History.” The article was recently published in Christian Perspectives on Science and Technology (the ISCAST journal), and can be accessed gratis both as webpage and PDF at https://doi.org/10.58913/DWMP7862 This series of nine conversations analyses and interprets the stanzas of the poem, a genuine narrative of everything, occasioning thoughts about culture, science, theology and, above all, life.
Bio: Graeme Finlay is retired from teaching scientific pathology at the University of Auckland and is an Anglican lay preacher. He has written Human Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 2013), The Gospel According to Dawkins (Austin-Macauley, 2017), Evolution and Eschatology (Wipf and Stock, 2021), and God’s Gift of Science (Wipf and Stock, 2022).
Host: Doru Costache
Below are links to the nine video recordings available on the YouTube channel AIOCS Conversations, followed by the host’s summaries:
AIOCS Conversations #26: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 1
The article appended by the poem analysed here considers the genetic code as a primal, or first, Testament, worthy of respect as much as the Old and the New Testaments, and equally relevant to our experience as God’s creation evolving in history. The conversation focuses on the message and significance of this article, and then turns to the article’s appendix, Graeme’s poetic narrative of everything, titled “A Freed Man’s Worship: The Point of It All.” The author read the first stanza, “Quantum Vacuum,” and then he and the interviewer commented on it. The discussion tackled the matter of the universe’s quantum potential and God’s activation of it with a view to the creation’s final consummation.
AIOCS Conversations #27: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 2
This conversation focuses on stanzas two and three of the poem, “Big Bang” and “Stars,” respectively, addressing matters of how scientific and Christian narratives can intersect. It also includes practical exercises of nature contemplation that take in consideration the current scientific description of phenomena.
AIOCS Conversations #28: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 3
This conversation focuses on stanzas four, five, and six of the poem, “Earth,” “Organic Chemistry,” and “Cells,” respectively, addressing the “fortunate” aspect of Earth’s location and history, that made possible the emergence of life, including our own, and the transformative processes at play that can be discerned in the backdrop of life. It also includes reflections on God’s work through the processes of nature.
AIOCS Conversations #29: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 4
This conversation focuses on stanzas seven and eighth of the poem, “Evolution” and “Bolide,” respectively, addressing the finely tuned aspect of DNA’s nature, the positive impact of viral invasions and cosmic catastrophes upon evolutionary mechanisms, and how God seems to work towards turning all bad things good. The last part ten minutes of the discussion focused on matters pertaining to natural theology.
AIOCS Conversations #30: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 5
After a few minutes of tuning-up our previous thoughts about natural theology, this conversation focuses on stanzas nine and ten of the poem, “Mammals” and “Humanity,” respectively, addressing the generative potential of life as a way of responding, in doxological fashion, to God’s blessings, as well as the complexity of human life, where various drives are obvious. Special consideration is given to the idea of synergy between God’s activity and nature’s generative capabilities, with Doru digressing about his Romanian misadventures caused by his putting forward this view of things.
AIOCS Conversations #31: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 6
This conversation focuses on stanzas eleven and twelve of the poem, “Israel” and “Jesus,” respectively, addressing the particularism of God’s activity in regard to the election/creation of Israel, culminating in Jesus’ own particular case, as a lens through which we decipher the history of the universe and life on earth. The analysis of the two stanzas is preceded by a return to the tenth one, “Humanity,” with Graeme and Doru engaging in the most philosophical discussion so far, on the person and its environment, and the role played by genes, culture, and society in the making of humankind.
AIOCS Conversations #32: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 7
This conversation focuses on stanzas thirteen and fourteen of the poem, “New Creation” and “Church,” respectively, addressing the stunning symmetry between Jesus’ story and the project of the Church, the new creation, at least in terms of the promise of the Gospel to the world. The topic of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection as revelation of the new creation, or rather of unknown laws of nature, features prominently. It is introduced by reflections on the correspondence between Jesus’ ministry to the marginalised, the poor, the sick etc., and the evolutionary history of life, where precisely the less adapted seem to be favoured when it comes to disturbances of the ecological balance. The conversation ends with critical thoughts about the the Church’s failure to live up to its calling.
AIOCS Conversations #33: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 8
This conversation focuses on stanzas fifteen and sixteen of the poem, “Science” and “Eschaton,” respectively, addressing, first, the topic of science as divine gift, despite the problems modern science has brought with it. But scientific reductionism and its less positive outcomes cannot take away from it the fact that it is a wonderful contributor to our experience in the here and now, including as believers. Second, the discussion focuses upon the bright perspective of a world renewed and made beautiful, or endowed with a beauty that transcends the ephemeral of our current experience. In this context, Graeme and Doru reflected upon the possibility of reading Genesis 1-2 through an eschatological lens, as the prophecy of beauty and joy for all creation in the age to come. Towards the end, Graeme shared a few more verses, written in memoriam of his wife, Jean, a paean to beauty as a promise of joy imperishable.
AIOCS Conversations #36: Graeme Finlay’s A Freed Man’s Worship, part 9
The discussion wraps up this thematic series by addressing mainly anthropological issues, such as “being in the image” and biology, but also the “mechanics” of coexistence for science and the Christian faith. Dr Wagdy Samir, AIOCS Director for Orthodox Studies, joined us for this discussion and made several comments.
4 September 2024 © AIOCS
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