The Commons Spring 2019: Graduation Edition | Page 8

FACULTY PROFILE
Dr. Gordon
Wilson
AN EVANGELIST OF
GENERAL REVELATION
S
OMETIMES DR. GORDON WILSON
has a whiteboard marker in his hand. Oth-
er times, a snake. He’s more comfortable
with the latter. “My first love was reptiles,” he
confesses. Dried snakeskin hangs from his book-
shelf as further proof.
Last year, his passion for God’s living world
led, to his own surprise, to the big screen. With
the release of the nature documentary The Riot
and the Dance in 2018, you could say Gordon
Wilson is serving up general revelation to the
general public.
“I’ve always been a hobbit in my hobbit hole,
just doing my job,” he says, describing life be-
fore the film. “I was busying myself teaching
classes and doing my thing at home.” That is, until his nephew
Nate Wilson, a wizard in his own right, knocked on his door.
“Nate said, ‘Uncle Gordon, would you be the narrator of a
nature documentary?’ And I said, ‘Let-me-think-about-it-yes.’
I jumped on it.”
8 THE COMMONS
As a biologist and young-earth creation-
ist, Dr. Wilson is a rare commodity. The
Riot and the Dance is even rarer. There are
almost no nature documentaries with a
Christian framework. The few that exist
don’t feature nature for nature’s sake, but
are apologetics wrapped in nature B-roll.
So, if it is not apologetics, what’s the point
of The Riot and the Dance?
“Praise,” says Dr. Wilson. “Praise and
worship. You see it in the Psalms. One of
my favorites is Psalm 104. It’s just glorify-
ing God in creation. It’s not apologetics.”
But the book The Riot and the Dance
came first. Written by Dr. Wilson him-
self, it is an educational textbook for those who dislike text-
books. Normal textbooks are “double columns, single-spaced,
marginalia galore, figures, charts,” Dr. Wilson says. “They’re
well-meaning. But it seems like no one asks the question, ‘Is
this the best way?’” He decided to break this “data dumping”