|
Dr. Greene - Book Reviews
What are you reading?
"...Transformed by the renewing of your mind"
Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational World-view, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985.
Christians today have, to a large extent, lost the creation. Oh, they know a great deal more about it than people did in the Middle Ages, but they have lost its message. God made it and maintains it with the specific purpose of speaking to us through it. However, modern times have become so deeply secularized that people, even Christians, think the world can be understood without reference to God. Christians believe in creation, but they have lost the powerful message of the created world. In the introduction to Brand and Yancey's Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, the authors make this point in these words: "The created world has lost its sacredness. Christians have abandoned it, not to paganism, but to physics, geology, biology and chemistry. We too have cleaved nature from he supernatural." (page 10)
An excellent little book of less than 100 pages, Creation Regained explains the way to get the creation back again. Wolters does this by defining, first of all, what a worldview is. Then he discusses the three major elements in a Biblical or Christian worldview;
creation, fall, and redemption. In a concluding chapter he deals with what a recovery of the creation can mean to us both personally and socially.
Unhappily, the prevailing view of Christians seems to be a split-level or dualistic outlook. Spiritual things like church, Bible study, prayer and witnessing are subject to the Bible, while all the rest of life - business, politics, recreation, and even marriage and family - somehow escapes the domination of a Christian worldview. These areas can be consecrated to the Lord, but they are not usually seen as intimately involved with the lordship of Christ. Yet Jesus said that it is impossible to serve two masters in life. God did not make humans to live on two different levels. Jesus did not live that way, and Christians are not intended to either. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." To move in the direction of this kind of holistic life, it is important to understand a Biblical worldlview and to let it increasingly direct one's life. Wolters book is a good place to begin this sort of renewal of one's mind and life.
If your Bible book store doesn't have the book, it can be ordered for you . It is also available from the Alta Vista Bookroom in Seattle and can be ordered by calling 206-522-1632.
|
|
District Overview
School Board
Foundations
Publications
Essential Questions
Affiliations
Dr. Greene's Web Forum
Dr. Greene's Articles
|
