Theological Scholar Forced To Resign After Supporting Evolution

Bruce K. Waltke, an Old Testament scholar at Florida’s Reformed Theological Seminary, has resigned his position after it was discovered he made a video endorsing evolution.

According to several people who saw the video, Waltke said that Christianity’s continued denial of evolution will “make [them] a cult.”

Inside Higher Ed notes that the video was removed from the website of the BioLogos Foundation at Waltke’s request because it upset his employers.

Waltke is a big enough name in evangelical theology that the incident is prompting considerable soul-searching. On the one hand, his public endorsement of the view that believing in evolution and being a person of faith are not incompatible was significant for those who, like the BioLogos Foundation, support such a view. Waltke’s scholarly and religious credentials in Christian theology were too strong for him to be dismissed easily.

But the fact that his seminary did dismiss him is viewed as a sign of just how difficult it may be for scholars at some institutions to raise issues involving science that are not 100 percent consistent with a literal interpretation of the Bible.

While the seminary says they permit a diversity of views, Michael Milton, president of the school’s Charlotte campus, said Waltke went too far.

Darwinian views, and any suggestion that humans didn’t arrive on earth directly from being created by God (as opposed to having evolved from other forms of life), are not allowed, he said, and faculty members know this.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.