Why it is how it is?

CREATED AND CREATING:
A biblical theology of culture
By William Edgar
IVP Apollos. 262 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978 1 783 595 488

Since Richard Niebuhr’s seminal book Christ and Culture was released, over 60 years ago, debates have continued regarding the interplay between Christian faith and cultural engagement. Into the arena steps William Edgar with his Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture.

Edgar’s basic thesis is that ‘the Bible teaches that cultural engagement before the living God is, along with worship, the fundamental calling of the human race.’ The greatest strength of Edgar’s book is his close and careful engagement with the text of Scripture, born of a desire to hear what the Bible itself says to the topic. Before diving into the exegesis, however, Edgar begins by surveying the various ways in which culture and cultural engagement has been understood both inside and outside the church in recent history.

Heavyweights

He briefly and skilfully outlines the views of such heavyweights as Arnold, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, Durkeim, Geertz, Niebuhr, Lewis, Kuyper, Schilder, Schaeffer and Newbigin . Having surveyed the scene, the rest of the book turns to the examination of what Scripture itself teaches.

Edgar begins by tackling the contra mundum (‘against the world’) texts, arguing that what we find there is, ‘not so much a radical rejection of the world… but a vigorous hostility to the malignancy that has corrupted the creation.’ Our opposition is toward sin, not the creation. Having addressed the common objections to cultural engagement, the author moves to make his own positive case by examining several themes including: the imago Dei; the creation mandate (and its relationship to the Great Commission – this chapter was a particular highlight); common grace; and eschatology.

This is probably a book pitched more at the pastor, though the informed lay-person would also benefit. Edgar’s close and careful exegesis of the texts makes this book a must-read, whatever your position on the wider debate.