A Matter of Days, ch. 1-5

Chapter 1 describes the current debate about creation/evolution and old-earth creation vs. young-earth creation as a storm. Somehow, the length of creation days has become one of THE central issue in Christianity. Ross' thesis is to show how young-universe and old-universe creationists are much closer to agreement than naturalist/evolutionists.

Chapter 2 opens with the idea that historically, the church has not made creation days an issue. Walking through some of the history of the debate, Ross seeks to show how science and religion became so polarized. Continuing with his storm theme, he builds the tension of the debate.

Chapter 3 shows how creation days became a central issue in Christianity. A statistic shared that I found startling was that 44% held young-universe, while 47% held evolution - then 74% of those surveyed wanted ONLY THEIR VIEW taught in schools. Tensions are obviously high. This tension makes open dialog nearly impossible.

Chapter 4 walks through the history of the church and seeks to demonstrate that early church fathers did not regard old-universe as a dividing issue. Appealing to Philo, Clement, Origen, Augustine and the like, he hopes to make his own position seem valid. One strength of this approach is the point he makes that these thinkers were not influenced by the current evolution debate.

Chapter 5 offers thoughts from the major confessions of the church. Though this is an argument from silence (particularly because it was not in debate yet, which is how most confessions came about), it is still an important part of the book. The point is still made that much of our traditional framework for theology does leave open the possibility of something other than a literal 6 days in creation.