Date

5-2020

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Chair

T. Michael Christ

Keywords

Apologetics, Original Monotheism, Christian Theism, Naturalism, New Ageism

Disciplines

Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

Where once in America, belief in Christian theism was shared by a large majority of the population, over the last 70 years belief in Christian theism has significantly eroded. From 1948 to 2018, the percent of Americans identifying as Catholic or Christians dropped from 91 percent to 67 percent, with virtually all the drop coming from protestant denominations. Naturalism and new ageism increasingly provide alternative means for understanding existential reality without the moral imperatives and the belief in the divine associated with Christian theism. The ironic aspect of the shifting of worldviews underway in western culture is that it continues with little regard for strong evidence for the truth of Christian theism emerging from historical, cultural, and scientific research. One reality long overlooked in this regard is the research of Wilhelm Schmidt and others, which indicates that the earliest religion of humanity is monotheism. Original monotheism is a strong indicator of the existence of a transcendent God who revealed Himself as portrayed in Genesis 1-11, thus affirming the truth of essential elements of Christian theism and the falsity of naturalism and new ageism. Original monotheism is a signal of transcendence and stands with other emerging existential realities that point to a Creator, including the fine-tuning of the universe, the origin and complexity of life, the mind and consciousness, the moral code which imbues humanity, and the growing evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. This paper concludes that the retreat from Christian theism has been hasty and ill-founded in the light of the evidence.

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