Harlow, the religion professor whose work appeared with Schneider’s, is among those feeling less secure. He said that he knows that there is “a cloud hanging over me” of pressure from religious conservatives to have him fired.

Readers of The Banner, the publication of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, reacted instantly to the news in January that two religion professors at Calvin College had written scholarly papers suggesting that evidence of genetics and evolution raised questions about the traditional, literal reading of Genesis about creation, the story of Adam and Eve, and the fall of humanity out of an initial idyllic state. [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

The professors were not disavowing the role of God or of their church, but were arguing that modern science challenges traditional, literal readings of the Book of Genesis in ways that may require theological shifts.

Nonetheless, the reaction from readers of The Banner, as expressed in many (but not all) comments on the website, was clear: no deviation from Genesis as literal truth could be tolerated. “To protect the church and college from false teachers and contrary orthodox beliefs it would be right to let these guys go,” said one comment. “Clearly, professors who deny the scriptures as interpreted by our creeds and who have broken the promise they made when they signed the Form of Subscription should be fired,” said another.

One recent post says: “Why is it that so many Christians and academics in Christian colleges seem more concerned about keeping in step with what the world teaches than they are about what God’s Word teaches? Are we ashamed of God’s Word in the face of the beliefs of our worldly peers?”

Such comments weren’t just posted on The Banner website, but were also sent to college officials, where the two professors were investigated. One — John Schneider — has now left the tenured position he held for 25 years, as part of an agreement with the college. The other religion professor, Daniel Harlow, remains at the college, and is refusing to back down from his views.

A joint statement from Schneider and the college says that the parties mutually agreed that Schneider should leave Calvin because of tensions raised by his scholarship and a desire that these tensions not create “harm and distraction.” While the statement praises Schneider’s commitment to the college, it also says that his “recent and proposed scholarly work addressing issues in genetic science and Christian theology, as they relate to human origin, have engendered legitimate concerns within the college community and its constituencies.”

The college has restricted its comment to the statement, and Schneider said that his agreement with Calvin required that he not discuss the circumstances or terms of his departure. But in an interview, he did discuss the article that set off the furor and why he thinks it is important — however difficult the discussions are — for scholars at Calvin and other religious colleges to grapple fully with science.

“My view is that any Christian denomination that can’t articulate itself credibly in ways in which science is regarded as true is in danger of being marginalized,” he said. “That’s what I was trying to do. I was trying to be constructive.”

Science in a Christian Context
The controversy at Calvin surrounding Schneider is notable in part in because he is no atheist trying to tear down religious belief in the Richard Dawkins model. Schneider’s work that is at issue was first presented in a lecture at a Christian institution, Baylor University, and it was published in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, a journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, an organization of Christian scientists who focus on ways they can be true both to research and to their faiths.

Schneider said that he considers himself “an orthodox Christian within the Reformed paradigm,” and that he has felt “at home” at Calvin over the years. Calvin is quite clear about its expectations of faculty members — that they must affirm that “the Bible is the authoritative, Spirit-breathed Word of God, fully reliable,” and that “God, the almighty creator of a good world, is sovereign over all of creation, granting to human beings, made in his image, the responsibility of caring for this world.”

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