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notwithoutwitness 's review for:
Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview
by Albert M. Wolters
I need to spend more time thinking through this book, particularly in relation to the other "models" of culture and cultural transformation. This presented a concise and helpful look at the Reformational or Transformational Worldview.
A reformational worldview argues that "grace restores nature" (12). Redemption is re-creation. Such a worldview has three basic affirmations: "the original good creation, the perversion of that creation through sin, and the restoration of that creation in Christ" (12).
Creation, fall, and redemption. Creation was and remains God's original intention. Humanity rebelled and fell into sin thus marring creation. God's plan of redemption is to bring restoration to the entire created order.
Structure and direction. Structure is the creational law, the way things were created to be. Direction is the way those things have either drifted away from their original intent or moved back in alignment after the fall.
Questions / Thoughts:
1. Is creation God's original intent or was it more? Wolters argues that creation begins in a garden and will culminate in a city, so there is cultural progress. We are not going back to the garden when God restores creation. But what about individuals? Are we saved to an original adamic state? I would argue that we are so much more, because we are now in Christ.
2. The focus in Creation Regained is very broad, almost to the neglect of the individual. Maybe it is my individualism, but I wonder if a more balanced approach highlighting the individual within the framework of creation would have proven more helpful.
3. I appreciated the discussion of mission and contextualization in the Postscript. "Ours is a mission under the cross. The good news may call forth opposition, conflict, and rejection. We announce and embody a victory that remains hidden until the final day. And so the embodiment of that victory often appears to the world as weakness, even foolishness. Yet the victory of the cross is assured in the resurrection. Until that resurrection life fully comes the church's mission will remain one of suffering and conflict." 134-135
Two part interview with Wolters on the 30th Anniversary of Creation Regained: https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/4452/creation-regained-at-thirty/; https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/4455/creation-regained-at-thirty-part-ii/
A reformational worldview argues that "grace restores nature" (12). Redemption is re-creation. Such a worldview has three basic affirmations: "the original good creation, the perversion of that creation through sin, and the restoration of that creation in Christ" (12).
Creation, fall, and redemption. Creation was and remains God's original intention. Humanity rebelled and fell into sin thus marring creation. God's plan of redemption is to bring restoration to the entire created order.
Structure and direction. Structure is the creational law, the way things were created to be. Direction is the way those things have either drifted away from their original intent or moved back in alignment after the fall.
Questions / Thoughts:
1. Is creation God's original intent or was it more? Wolters argues that creation begins in a garden and will culminate in a city, so there is cultural progress. We are not going back to the garden when God restores creation. But what about individuals? Are we saved to an original adamic state? I would argue that we are so much more, because we are now in Christ.
2. The focus in Creation Regained is very broad, almost to the neglect of the individual. Maybe it is my individualism, but I wonder if a more balanced approach highlighting the individual within the framework of creation would have proven more helpful.
3. I appreciated the discussion of mission and contextualization in the Postscript. "Ours is a mission under the cross. The good news may call forth opposition, conflict, and rejection. We announce and embody a victory that remains hidden until the final day. And so the embodiment of that victory often appears to the world as weakness, even foolishness. Yet the victory of the cross is assured in the resurrection. Until that resurrection life fully comes the church's mission will remain one of suffering and conflict." 134-135
Two part interview with Wolters on the 30th Anniversary of Creation Regained: https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/4452/creation-regained-at-thirty/; https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/4455/creation-regained-at-thirty-part-ii/