What is man, anyway?

Science is the key to knowledge and prosperity and happiness.

Our solar system is like an air bubble in a pond.

The things of creation and the worldviews of men come and go.

In the household of faith we are all teachers of one another.

If we're not working at this every day, why not?

Is the world beginning to seek out more transcendent truths and realities?

...the concept of 'nature' is a socially mediated notion, not an objective entity in its own right.

  - Alister E. McGrath, A Scientific Theology 1: Nature

The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof...

  - Psalm 24:1

Dr. McGrath's assertion will, I suspect, surprise many readers. What does he mean, there's no such thing as objective "nature"? Has Dr. McGrath fallen under the spell of some exotic Eastern religion?

No, he's under the "spell" of Scripture. The idea that "nature" exists as purely objective reality - stuff out there, but without any intrinsic meaning or purpose - is strictly a modern, Enlightenment idea. We all know there's lots of stuff out there - rocks, trees, creatures, quarks, solar flares, and whatnot. But is it just stuff? Creatures with no identity or purpose, except as human beings are able to identify and define them?

Imagine going to an art museum, looking at the paintings there, studying a few closely and with appreciation, and then heading down to the cafe to talk about your observations with a friend. You begin assigning names to the paintings and offering explanations not only of what they mean but how they came to be here and what their relationships are to one another - and everything you say is nothing more than what suits your fancy or interest. Clearly, you have wrongly assumed that all the "stuff" in those galleries had just been there forever, waiting for you to come along and offer your view of what they were, where they'd come from, what they meant, and what we might do with them.

This is the way secular science treats the "stuff" of the cosmos, and it's part of the hubris of science that troubles me.

The earth - and the whole vast cosmos, for that matter - is the Lord's, and everything in it. He made it all (Ps. 24:2). He created and sustains all the processes, particles, protocols, and patterns of the cosmos (Heb. 1:3). He loves the cosmos which He created and sustains, and He sent His Son, in part, to set the cosmos back in order again as the creation of and witness to God which He intends it to be (Jn. 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Ps. 19:1-4).

The world is creation, not nature. And language like this matters. It may seem a small thing, a quibble, to insist - as I do - that "nature" is neither an accurate nor appropriate way to refer to the creation of our God, and that therefore Christians working in the sciences ought to make a point of speaking of the world in appropriate Biblical ways. But we will not make headway in bringing the glory of God to light through our work in the sciences if we don't even have the gumption to call things what they are in God's view.

Believers have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). Let's not set that mind aside as we take up the work of science.

Or as we talk about the world God has made.

T. M. Moore

Senior Theologian and Historian

...today especially, when we ponder into whose hands we have increasingly consigned the keeping of our cultural inheritance and the responsibility for transmitting it to later generations, can we feel other than deeply worried?

  - Harry Blamires, Recovering the Christian Mind

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

  - Ephesians 5:15, 16

In evil days - days when the Lie of secularism, relativism, and materialism has captured the souls of so many - Christians in all disciplines must be vigilant and diligent.

We must be vigilant to guard the truth of God against the many counterfeits which commend themselves, not to sound thinking, but to convenience, advantage, or moral agreeableness.

And we must be diligent to apply our Christian thinking and worldview to all areas of life and culture, so that we might draw out the knowledge of the glory of God in all we think, say, and do (1 Cor. 10:31; Hab. 2:14; Prov. 25:2).

This is no time for pussy-footing around the issues, being careful not to offend any of our colleagues with forthright assertions about God, His truth, and the way the world works. If we continue to allow the transmission of our cultural heritage to pass through the hands of unbelieving academics and politicians, the dilution of that heritage will continue apace, until all the truth of the Christian provenance of much of the world's greatest culture is effectively washed out.

All truth is God's truth, as Arthur Holmes so ably put it. That being the case, those of us who deal with truth should represent it as such, whether that truth is in the area of Biblical exegesis, historical analysis, artistic interpretation, or scientific endeavor. Every time we fail to connect the truth with which we are working with the knowledge of the glory of God, we leave the field of truth vacant to be occupied by the forces of unbelief. Truth is what God says it is, not what human beings decide. So if we want the next generation to know the truth, know it as God's truth, then we'd better represent it as such in every situation, as often as we can.

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T. M. Moore

Senior Theologian and Historian

God is revealing Himself in His Word and in His works.