Apparently, the subject of creation theology has been somewhat neglected by professional theologians in years past, and what's more, the subject has often times been subordinate to redemption. Stated plainly, it has often been the practice of theologians to consider God's real work to be redemption.
The reasons for this subordination of creation are listed by Terrence Fretheim in his book, God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relationship Theology of Creation, and are too many to list at this time. As I have read his book, I think that I have at times been guilty of this kind of subordination in my thinking and teaching. His suggestions have weighed on my mind for quite some time and have formed the way I think about creation and its relationship to redemption.
One passage from the book that I find especially poignant:
The redemptive work of God is a special dimension of God's more comprehensive activity as Creator. To equate the two would collapse all of God's work in the world into redemption and diminish God's more comprehensive work as Creator, including blessing. Generally speaking, God's goal for the creation is not redemption; God's redemption is a means to a new creation, and salvation will be the key characteristic of that new reality.
This understanding, in turn, has implications for how one thinks about creation; the creation is not something to be left behind as God works on more important matters, such as redemption. To equate creation and redemption, or to subordinate creation to redemption, is to endanger the status of the world, including human beings, as creation. It is also to place in question God's love for the creation itself, quite apart from the redemption, as if God's goal is to get beyond creation to some other reality. Moreover, such an equation endangers the recognition that redemption has to do with much more than spiritual matters; it includes the healing of the body (finally, resurrection), indeed the healing of the environment.
-Terrence Fretheim
My reflection upon these statements as well as the larger body of Fretheim's work has been very fruitful and provides a framework with which to approach the many environmental issues that concern many people today.
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3 comments:
i love what you've been writing lately... and I only have like 10 blogs you punk
Thanks Adam and your 10 blogs statement made me guffaw. :)
"guffaw"...uh, whats that mean
anyway, I'm sure I'm missing all kinds of subtleties but who stopped thinking about God as creator?
I think these bookworms need to pull their heads out if they placed God's redemptive work over his creation work. I mean...chronology? Hard to have redemption of something not yet created. I know we place alot of emphasis on salvation, but salvation is a very limited view of God's plan...redemption of all creation to the way it was intended is the goal at hand. Why? because God is Creatoooor. Certainly we focus on salvation because that is where we live, so to speak...but it doesnt change the big picture that God is interested in everything that he created.
Environmentally, God's charge for us to take care of the earth never changed. Stewardship is stewardship...whether spiritual, financial or environmental. God calls us to be responsible...why? because He is the Creatooor and its His stuff we are to be responsible with.
So....uh, recycle stuff and use paper, not plastic. haha
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