Pope St. Pius X
Of course, one book by one priest does not a movement make. But the posture of the SSPX toward this book is tantamount to endorsement. Upon its release, the SSPX’s website officially promoted the book as being “written at [its] Holy Cross Seminary,” and applauded that it “takes a thesis of the late, great Fr. Stanley Jaki.” The book’s author taught theology and philosophy at the Society’s Holy Cross Seminary until 2019, when he took charge of one of the Society’s high schools in the United States. Additionally, the Society’s publisher, Angelus Press, not only sells the book but gives it accolades, having promoted it with an email push following its publication. Further, priories of the SSPX in the United States have promoted the book by hosting lectures with Fr. Robinson. And, finally, Fr. Robinson himself credits his formation at the SSPX seminary for instilling in him this “opposition” to the literal interpretation of Genesis, explaining it was there that:
[he] was taught why Catholic exegetes reject [the idea of a young Earth, i.e., dating the Earth according to Scriptural history,] under the guidance of the Church. God willing, I was also given a Catholic intellectual balance in Scriptural matters which, in turn, I hope I communicate to my own students.
In The Realist Guide, Fr. Robinson announces: “Today, it is clear that Genesis 1 is not meant to provide a strict history of the universe.” Instead, he insists that the literal understanding of Genesis is incompatible with reality. This, he contends, results in “an apparent dilemma for believers.” According to Fr. Robinson, taking Genesis literally has “disastrous effects on souls,” often ending in apostasy. To emphasize this point, he narrates the following:
Jaki makes mention of a priest working in the slums of Paris who claimed that ‘the apparent conflict between science and the six-day-creation story was much more effective in promoting atheism among the poor and the relatively uneducated than were the social injustices that cut into their flesh and blood.’
To what “social injustices” this Parisian priest was referring is left undisclosed, but his disdain for the six-day-creation “story” is obvious. The answer to the “dilemma,” says Fr. Robinson, is to adopt “a middle ground” and compromise “between the strictly literal interpretation and the allegorical” reading of Genesis 1. He calls this middle ground “progressive creationism,” explaining “that Genesis 1 is not an exact, historical account of the unfolding of creation, yet at the same time, it does contain historical elements.” In explaining this notion, he declares that:
God did not create everything at once, but rather created some material beings in an initial instant and then progressively added material beings to the universe at later times. This did not happen in six periods of twenty-four hours, nor did it happen in the exact order indicated by Genesis 1.
According to Fr. Robinson’s reckoning, it is impossible for Creation to have happened within the time-frame calculated by Biblical scholars, which dates Creation at approximately 6,000 or so years ago. Instead, Fr. Robinson suggests that God initiated creation via the “Big Bang Theory,” starting with a “primeval atom” some 13.7 billions of years ago—an opinion he credits as having “probable certainty.” He opines that taking Genesis literally “advocates a picture of the Earth that is manifestly wrong” concerning its age, as well as the historical account of Creation over six days that he deems equally erroneous. Fr. Robinson also rejects the Genesis account of the Flood of Noah, contending it to be both scientifically and physically impossible. He concludes that the Flood could not have happened as described in Genesis and, thus, had to be merely local to that region.
Topic: Latest Kolbe Center re Fr. Robinson's The Realist Guide to Religion and Science (Read 1096 times)