Vol. X • 1988       http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v10n4p01.htm

Ten Years of the CSSH Quarterly
Paul D. Ackerman

Ten complete volumes of the Creation Social Science and Humanities Quarterly have now been sent out into the world. In our ten years of publication the CSSH Quarterly has sought to be a contributing warrior in what Harold Lindsell called for in his best selling book The Battle for the Bible. Our intention, by God's grace, has bean to honor the spirit of IICorinthians 10:3-5:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Our prayer is that over the years this ministry has been instrumental in strengthening and upholding the faith of Christian students and scholars in the social sciences and humanities. A very brief review of significant materials published on its pages helps to sum up the thrust of this work for our long-time supporters as well as prospective newcomers.

The most popular article in CSSHQ's first issue (Vol. I, No. 1; Fall 1978) was "The Footprint of Dragons" by Lorella Rouster and dealt with the importance of dinosaurs for creation teaching. It has remained a favorite to this day. Dr. Ackerman's editorial on recent creation (Vol. l, 2, Winter 1978) already forecast his very popular 1986 best-selling book It's A Young World After All. Ellen Myers' musical composition "Psalm 8" also anticipated her subsequent study of composition and articles on artistic creativity. The next CSSHQ (Vol. l, 3, Spring 1979) first contained information on the Creation Social Science and Humanities Society, and the membership/ subscription form, including Statement of Belief, with its emphasis on the "creation of Adam and Eve as one man and woman in the image of God and their subsequent fall into sin." In the last issue of Volume I Dr. Ackerman wrote the following conclusion to his popular article "The Impact of Creationism on the Social Sciences":

In summary, I believe we might expect scientific creationism to influence the social sciences in the following four ways: First, it would cause a redefinition of the domain and limits of social science. Second, it would lessen the current tendency toward social engineering and cultural management. Third, it would provide for a balanced conception of man as a free moral agent and subject to environmental and biological influences. Lastly, it would lead to a higher regard for common sense and the naive view of both man and nature (CSSHQ, Vol. l, 4 [Summer 1979], p.26.)

The Fall 1979 (Vol. 11,1) CSSHQ saw information about the CSSHS for the first time inside the front and back covers where it is still found today (more space was needed for articles). This issue also featured the first "in-depth" article by Ellen Myers on a particularly influential scholar and/or philosophy of our time ("Sorokin's ´Integralism' vs. the Biblical Creation Position,). Vol. ll, 2 (Winter 1979) of the CSSHQ contained Part I of the perennially popular and important article "The Biblical Chronology Question An Analysis" by James B. Jordan, which was concluded in Vol. ll, 3 (Spring 1980). The last issue of Vol. ll (Summer 1980) published the CSSHQ's first article exclusively on biblical economics, "Creation and Inflation: Does the Bible Speak to Our Practical Problems?" by Dr. Edward Coleson.

In his editorial for the Vol. III,1 (Fall 1980) CSSHQ Dr. Ackerman reiterated that

In the CSSH Quarterly, and by other means as God may direct, we will endeavor to show that the only true and sure foundation of man's knowledge of himself (psychology)--of his relationships with other men (sociology)--of his communication and creativity (literature and fine arts)--of his institutions of social order (administration of justice, economics, political science)--of his activities and their description (history)--is the creation of man in God's image as infallibly revealed in the Bible. All other attempts to account for man are vain and doomed to failure.

This issue also contained the creationist classic, first penned in the 1960s, by Dr. Rousas John Rushdoony, founder of the Christian Reconstruction movement, in which he pointed out that "Because God has created every fact in the universe, every fact must be understood in terms of the interpretation placed upon it by God's creative purpose. We must strive in every area to think God's thoughts after Him." (CSSHQ,111,1 [Fall 1980],p.13.) The most important article of the next issue of the CSSHQ was Robert F. Smith's often cited "Origins and Civil Liberties" (111, 2 [Winter 1980], pp.23-27.) Here began also Ellen Myers' Part I of her monograph on the philosophy of John Dewey, continued in the next two issues. Vol. III, 3 (Spring 1981) contained a list of CSSHS "contact persons" in various parts of the world. Of the 36 friends listed, 21 are still with us (8 as Voting Members) seven years later. Vol. III,4 (Summer 1981) featured Dr. Edward Coleson's impressive investigation of "The Bishop [Samuel Wilberforce] and "Darwin's Bulldog' [T. E. Huxley]." We excerpt the conclusion of Ellen Myers' article ´´Why Be Moral?" in the Vol. lV,1 (Fall 1981) CSSHQ:

As usual, our conclusion will depend on our starting point. If we start with the determinist-evolutionist view of the universe as self-contained and "nothing-but" matter in motion ... then by all means let us cast aside morality as a mirage, gone with the historical periods whence it arose. Of course we feel at home with some form of Hegelian dialectic materialistic relativism, and the more or less dictatorial conduct of mankind's affairs by some sort of "elite" . . .
Or else we can start—and conclude—with the Biblical creation of man in the image of the Triune God his Creator, Provider and Saviour/Redeemer, in which view the question, "Why be moral?" is equivalent to the question, "why live?" with total meaning for each human being . . . which not even death can destroy. For if man is created in the image of the ever-living God of the Bible—then he, too, has the potential of eternal life.
The choice is yours. (p.24)

Vol. lV, 2 (Winter 1981) published the first announcement on creationist materials for Catholics. In Vol. lV,3 (Spring 1982) Dr. Ackerman's editorial read in part: "Creation is an idea that threatens to turn upside-down many worldly scientific, theological, philosophical and even political establishments. Little wonder that enemies of Scripture and Biblical Christianity are alarmed." Dr. Ackerman also alerted readers of the CSSHQ to the fact that

Purely materialistic and atheistic evolution lies dead in the water in the eyes of more and more people. But this does not mean that all are or will be rushing to Biblical Christianity. There is an ancient and much more formidable foe waiting in the wings, it is pantheistic mysticism, or…"The ultimate evolutionist model: evolution by purposive forces" (see Daniel 11:38). When this foe becomes firmly established we may look back almost with nostalgia upon the old girl neo-Darwinian evolution.

In view of the phenomenal spread of "new age" cosmic evolutionist thought in both the social and the natural sciences since then, this was a prophetic assessment of what lay ahead. Vol. lV, 4 (Summer 1982) featured a poem which expressed the biblical creation view of people handicapped from birth. Carla Vale's "To A Retarded Child,'' based on the Song of Solomon 8:8-9, stated:

You have a special place
In our Creator's perfect heart and mind,
Beloved little sister! By His grace
You shall appear adorned before His face,
No longer seeming dumb and deaf and blind,
Marked by the sin of Adam's fallen kind
In your marred body.... and our song
Shall praise Him for creating you, forevermore.

The important book The Dominion Covenant: Genesis by Gary North, President of the Institute for Christian Economics (P O Box 8____00 Tyler, TX 7___701), was reviewed in Vol. VI (Fall 1982) of the CSSHQ. Here this prolific and thoroughgoing author deals with

(1) the God-designed harmony of interests between people of varying abilities and backgrounds . . .; (2) scarcity and time as both curses and also as blessings when rightly understood and employed; (3) management of the ecology by Biblical dominion covenant principles; (4) the relationship between . . . prosperity, and character; (5) a Biblical understanding of the notions of intrinsic and imputed value . . .; (6) the entrepreneurial function in a godly economy. (p.21)

Vol. V,2 (Winter 1982) featured a lengthy analysis of the misleading evolutionist "paradigm" in social theory and action by Ellen Myers. In Vol. V, 3 (Spring 1983) Dr. Ackerman's editorial and an article by Walter Van der Kamp dealt with the impossibility for man to evaluate the material universe if he is himself nothing but part and parcel of it. Vol. V, 4 (Summer 1983) of the CSSHQ was completely devoted to the arts and literature from the biblical creation perspective. Most interesting were Ellen Myers' article "Music Composition from the Biblical Creation Perspective," and especially the CSSHQ "Laymen's Reprint" of Kathy Lynn Hutson's outstanding and unique "Metaphor and Biblical Creation" (condensed from her article in Vol. 1,1 and 2 of the CSSHQ).

Scholarships for creationist students in the social sciences and humanities were first announced in Vol. VI,1(Fall 1983), which also carried Dennis Farrell's "Creation and Human Language" (reprinted and abridged from Vol. l, 2 and 3). Vol. VI, 2 (Winter 1983) initiated articles on ancient history with Roy E. Hales' "Archaeology, the Bible and the Post-Flood Origins of Chinese History." Responding to Ellen Myers' "Damned Nonsense" in Vol. VI, 3 (Spring 1984), R. G. Elmendorf sent us his tongue-in-cheek drawing of "The Two-Model Approach" published in Vol. VI, 4 (Summer 1984), reproduced below. We feel this picture "speaks a thousand words" on the entire issue of biblical creation vs. all other "models" of origins and destiny.

We hasten on to Vol. VI1,1 (Fall 1984) and the excellent article "Race and Interracial Marriage" by Thomas M. Brown, Jr. He analyzed all Bible passages on inter-"race" or interfaith marriage, concluding that "race" is immaterial in marriage, but a believer must not marry an unbeliever. In Vol. VII, 2 (Winter 1984) Dr. John C. Whitcomb, co-author of the creationist classic The Genesis Flood and on CSSHS's Board of Reference, wrote an important article, "Creation Science and Biblical Creation." In it he said:

Can scientific creationism be detached from biblical and theological creationism and made to function effectively in the hearts of men on its own strength? That is a major question that creationists must face today....
Two serious limitations must be faced. First, when creationism is isolated from biblical theology it is reduced to a mere scientific theory which, in the very nature of science, offers no ultimately authoritative answers or assurances . . . Probability, not certainty, is ail that can be hoped for. Purely scientific cosmogony and cosmology would therefore seem to be locked forever into the ultimate frustration of "ever learning and never able to come to the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7).
Second, creation science, when isolated from the wider context of special revelation in Scripture, is devoid of theological identity from a Christian perspective. One might just as well be a Jewish or even a Muslim creation scientist as far as this model is concerned...(p.22)

We concur that these are crucial issues. We have also found ourselves arguing not so much from this or that "model" of "creation science" but rather from the biblical record of creation and the fall (though we have also published articles on the fit of psychological research with the creation of man). Vol. VI1,3 (Spring 1985) contained much material on the importance of biblical creation in the teaching and liturgy of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The most popular and challenging article in Vol. VII, 4 (Summer 1985) was Ross S. Marshall's fascinating "The Ark Upon A Rock" (North American Indian Flood account).

The views of C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald on biblical creation were the chief subject of Vol. VI11,1 (Fall 1985), which contained C. S. Lewis's satirical poem "Evolutionary Hymn." Vol. VI11, 2 (Winter 1985) announced the availability of creationist materials from the Catholic Creation Ministries, 24 Griffin St., Skanecteles, NY 13152. It also contained articles on Liberation Theology by J. Scott Horrell (Worldteam missionary to Brazil) and Dr. Edward Coleson. A well researched and documented article by Dr. Jerry Bergman traced "The Influence of Evolution on Nazi Race Programs." Finally, Vol. VI11, 4 (Summer 1986), wholly dedicated to psychology, explained "Why Secular Psychology is Not Enough" (William Kirk Kilpatrick) and "Counseling from the Biblical Creation Perspective" (Ellen Myers). This issue was used as a text in a weekly seminar taught by Dr. Ackerman and Mrs. Myers at Wichita State University for Christian students in the 1986/87 school year.

Vol. lX,1 (Fall 1986) featured the thoroughly researched "A Jewish Blessing" on Jews' accomplishments in all fields of human endeavor by Dennis Farrell. Vol. lX, 2 (Winter 1986) contained the well received "A Proof for Creation: The Hostility of Creation Denied" by Ellen Myers, and the hard-hitting "Indoctrination By Our Public Schools" by Dr. Jerry Bergman. Vol. lX, 3 (Spring 1987) published the fine summary of the importance of biblical creation "Creation: The Cornerstone of Truth" by Stan F. Vaninger, and also Judy Vorfeld's important "The Compelling World of Mind Control." Paul Gosselin investigated the historical beginning of modern science in his thorough "The Judeo-Christian Cosmology and the Origins of Science" in Vol. lX, 4 (Summer 1987) of the CSSHQ.

Vol. X,1 (Fall 1987) contained scholarly articles by Douglas Groothuis on Hebrew (Old Testament) and by Ellen Myers on general historiography. Vol. X, 2 (Winter 1987) continued with Part Il of Ellen Myers' monograph on "Thomas Molnar: A Christian Scholar for Our Time," of which the concluding Part III was published in Vol. X, 3 (Spring 1988). This brings us up to the present issue, Vol. X, 4 (Summer 1988).

Many other fine articles on numerous topics related to our purpose as well as many poems and informative book reviews have been published besides those writings singled out above. Most issues of the CSSHQ contained beautiful original art work, especially by co-founder and first vice president of the CSSHS, Mrs. Sue Paar. We have a backlog of many more excellent contributions and thank our Lord for sustaining us through our first decade of work, and in the years to come.

"Ten Years of the CSSH Quarterly"
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