Lutheran Essentials meets in the undercroft of the church on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. You can reach the undercroft by going around to the back parking lot of the church and descending the staircase to the kitchen. Knock on the door if it is closed and some one will let you in. Our current study is on “In Christ All Things Hold Together”. If you do not have a hard copy of the book we are providing it for free, as well as copies of the Book of Concord and the Lutheran Service Book.
There is no psalm this week as there will be Vespers preceding class at 6:30pm. The Small Catechism lesson is the Fourth Commandment.
We will be reading Chapter 3: Philosophical Issues (pg. 72-97). We will start with the Introduction (pg. 72) and move into a discussion on the philosophical problems for the scientific vocation (pg. 72-74). We will talk about the philosophical problems with Materialism (pg. 74-78) and Scientism (pg. 78-81). We will then have an extended discussion of the problems with methodological materialism (pg. 81-82) both the problems with in-principle arguments (pg. 82-89) and in-fact arguments (pg. 89-91). We will then talk about the problems with the nonoverlapping magesteria (NOMA) model of science and theology (pg. 91-93) and the problems with parascience (pg. 93-94). We will then talk about the philosophical contributions of Christianity to science (pg. 94). This includes the metaphysical support for science (pg. 94-95), the epistemological support for science (pg. 95-96), and the moral support for science (pg. 97). We will read the conclusion of this chapter (pg. 97) and then sing the hymn “Thy Strong Word” (LSB 578)
As always new people are always welcome to this study at any point during the class. Please talk to the Pastor, Elders or Paul Edmon if you have any questions.
