Author: Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
Publisher: Pantocrator Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133
Book Description
“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. I heard that you don’t know who Stahl is. And I could not help wondering – please pardon my incivility, but … what rock have you been hiding under? Never heard of Stahl? Why, he is simply one of the greatest statesmen and legal scholars that Germany ever produced. “Everyone knows Stahl – usually without wanting to. For he has many opponents, who execrated what he stood for. They had a host of names for him: ‘a friend of compulsion, of princely absolutism, of medieval prejudices and misconceptions, a thoughtless fanatic, attached to obsolete forms, who foolishly mixes politics with religion; an ultra-Lutheran, Puseyite, head of the Junker party, proponent of feudal abuses, sophist in scientific outfit, dreamer about whose metaphysical speculations one reluctantly racks one's brains.’ When he died, they were happy to see him go: ‘Every sane person gladly sends such wicked men as this crusader chasing the holy cross, when heaven pleases to call them.’ Crusader! And they say that of someone who is Jewish! That’s right, Stahl was a convert to Christianity. And then, about his legacy – they are certain it will not follow after him: ‘It does not look as if Stahl will rise from the dead anymore.’ “But it will. I – we – will make sure that it does. Stahl was a voice crying in the wilderness, but his message is timeless. The kingdom of God and of His Christ will be recognized, on earth as it is in heaven. Here and now, among the rulers and powers, among the nations. ‘Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.’ That is Stahl’s message, not only in private, among the congregation and around the dinner table, but in public, in the halls of power, the groves of academia, the popular consciousness, the public’s opinion. The gospel is an affair of public interest, it is a message to the nations. It concerns their weal and woe, their destiny. Such is by no means a matter of indifference to the kingdom of God. “That has been my message as well. Believe me, it is not a popular one in this day and age. The entire Zeitgeist is running against it. No one wants to hear of ‘the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth’ – not even His followers! But does that mean that we are to be silenced? Or worse yet, to silence ourselves? Forbid it, Almighty God! “It is time men like Stahl were recognized for their work, their achievement, and their vision for the church, the nations, and the kingdom of God. It is past time to embrace and build upon their legacies, especially Stahl’s, which is so rich, profitable, rewarding. Read this memorial and acquaint yourself with someone who well deserves your undivided attention.”
In Memory of Stahl
Author: Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
Publisher: Pantocrator Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133
Book Description
“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. I heard that you don’t know who Stahl is. And I could not help wondering – please pardon my incivility, but … what rock have you been hiding under? Never heard of Stahl? Why, he is simply one of the greatest statesmen and legal scholars that Germany ever produced. “Everyone knows Stahl – usually without wanting to. For he has many opponents, who execrated what he stood for. They had a host of names for him: ‘a friend of compulsion, of princely absolutism, of medieval prejudices and misconceptions, a thoughtless fanatic, attached to obsolete forms, who foolishly mixes politics with religion; an ultra-Lutheran, Puseyite, head of the Junker party, proponent of feudal abuses, sophist in scientific outfit, dreamer about whose metaphysical speculations one reluctantly racks one's brains.’ When he died, they were happy to see him go: ‘Every sane person gladly sends such wicked men as this crusader chasing the holy cross, when heaven pleases to call them.’ Crusader! And they say that of someone who is Jewish! That’s right, Stahl was a convert to Christianity. And then, about his legacy – they are certain it will not follow after him: ‘It does not look as if Stahl will rise from the dead anymore.’ “But it will. I – we – will make sure that it does. Stahl was a voice crying in the wilderness, but his message is timeless. The kingdom of God and of His Christ will be recognized, on earth as it is in heaven. Here and now, among the rulers and powers, among the nations. ‘Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.’ That is Stahl’s message, not only in private, among the congregation and around the dinner table, but in public, in the halls of power, the groves of academia, the popular consciousness, the public’s opinion. The gospel is an affair of public interest, it is a message to the nations. It concerns their weal and woe, their destiny. Such is by no means a matter of indifference to the kingdom of God. “That has been my message as well. Believe me, it is not a popular one in this day and age. The entire Zeitgeist is running against it. No one wants to hear of ‘the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth’ – not even His followers! But does that mean that we are to be silenced? Or worse yet, to silence ourselves? Forbid it, Almighty God! “It is time men like Stahl were recognized for their work, their achievement, and their vision for the church, the nations, and the kingdom of God. It is past time to embrace and build upon their legacies, especially Stahl’s, which is so rich, profitable, rewarding. Read this memorial and acquaint yourself with someone who well deserves your undivided attention.”
Publisher: Pantocrator Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133
Book Description
“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. I heard that you don’t know who Stahl is. And I could not help wondering – please pardon my incivility, but … what rock have you been hiding under? Never heard of Stahl? Why, he is simply one of the greatest statesmen and legal scholars that Germany ever produced. “Everyone knows Stahl – usually without wanting to. For he has many opponents, who execrated what he stood for. They had a host of names for him: ‘a friend of compulsion, of princely absolutism, of medieval prejudices and misconceptions, a thoughtless fanatic, attached to obsolete forms, who foolishly mixes politics with religion; an ultra-Lutheran, Puseyite, head of the Junker party, proponent of feudal abuses, sophist in scientific outfit, dreamer about whose metaphysical speculations one reluctantly racks one's brains.’ When he died, they were happy to see him go: ‘Every sane person gladly sends such wicked men as this crusader chasing the holy cross, when heaven pleases to call them.’ Crusader! And they say that of someone who is Jewish! That’s right, Stahl was a convert to Christianity. And then, about his legacy – they are certain it will not follow after him: ‘It does not look as if Stahl will rise from the dead anymore.’ “But it will. I – we – will make sure that it does. Stahl was a voice crying in the wilderness, but his message is timeless. The kingdom of God and of His Christ will be recognized, on earth as it is in heaven. Here and now, among the rulers and powers, among the nations. ‘Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.’ That is Stahl’s message, not only in private, among the congregation and around the dinner table, but in public, in the halls of power, the groves of academia, the popular consciousness, the public’s opinion. The gospel is an affair of public interest, it is a message to the nations. It concerns their weal and woe, their destiny. Such is by no means a matter of indifference to the kingdom of God. “That has been my message as well. Believe me, it is not a popular one in this day and age. The entire Zeitgeist is running against it. No one wants to hear of ‘the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth’ – not even His followers! But does that mean that we are to be silenced? Or worse yet, to silence ourselves? Forbid it, Almighty God! “It is time men like Stahl were recognized for their work, their achievement, and their vision for the church, the nations, and the kingdom of God. It is past time to embrace and build upon their legacies, especially Stahl’s, which is so rich, profitable, rewarding. Read this memorial and acquaint yourself with someone who well deserves your undivided attention.”
London Street
Author: Jane E. Griffioen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725267578
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
Within a Dutch enclave already removed from the larger world, Janie's family is further isolated and odd. Janie struggles within the tight-knit community to understand the secrets and events involving her family. She knows the line her father draws between the holy and the sinful. His boundaries and rigid belief system nearly destroy the very family they were meant to protect. Persistent rumors and shunning by church members add to Janie's heartache and confusion. Her endurance to preserve a loving relationship with her family is an intimate story of triumph over community bigotry and religious zeal gone too far.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725267578
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
Within a Dutch enclave already removed from the larger world, Janie's family is further isolated and odd. Janie struggles within the tight-knit community to understand the secrets and events involving her family. She knows the line her father draws between the holy and the sinful. His boundaries and rigid belief system nearly destroy the very family they were meant to protect. Persistent rumors and shunning by church members add to Janie's heartache and confusion. Her endurance to preserve a loving relationship with her family is an intimate story of triumph over community bigotry and religious zeal gone too far.
Principles of Law
Author: Friedrich Julius Stahl
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
The Christian difference to the legal order is not to be found in any religious test or requirement of conformity, but in the Christian character of legal institutions. Stahl accomplishes this by making institutions rather than actions the cornerstone of law. Law is a general rule, not a specific command; and institutions, not persons, are its primary object. Persons operate within the framework established by law, but that law is an external, objective framework, not an internal, subjective one. The right of the person and the rights of persons are established and defended precisely by this objectively Christian order. Therefore, what is Christian about this legal order is the principles, the law-ideas, upon which it is based, not the level of faith of those living within it. This Christian orientation also demands a respect for the inheritance of the nation, conservation of its received institutions and laws. Law is rooted in custom and tradition, supplemented through legislation. The courts are bound to the law as the expression of the historical people, not ephemeral public opinion. The major error of modern legal philosophy is its natural-rights orientation, which makes law and the state into the creatures of individual choice, in which individuals through a social contract choose to leave the “state of nature” and form a government and a set of laws under which to be ruled. This whole approach is oblivious to the fact that human social order, being an inheritance, is a higher order transcending individual choice. Modern legal philosophy compounds its error by making natural law into a directly applicable legal standard, or alternatively by abandoning the law to the play of interests, cutting off any influence from higher principles. For its part, natural law lacks objectivity, universal recognition, and publicity in the sense that it can be known by everyone ahead of time; it therefore cannot be enforced by the state. In fact, to do so is to establish opinion and thus injustice as law. God's divine order is the archetype of law, but it is not directly applicable as law. In fact, God commands that the law as it stands is to be obeyed, regardless of its correspondence to the higher principles of law. Human freedom under God is the freedom to crystallize and make concrete those God-revealed principles of law as a positive legal order. In this second edition of Principles of Law, there is no difference in content as compared with the first, but the text has been corrected where necessary and improved where appropriate.
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
The Christian difference to the legal order is not to be found in any religious test or requirement of conformity, but in the Christian character of legal institutions. Stahl accomplishes this by making institutions rather than actions the cornerstone of law. Law is a general rule, not a specific command; and institutions, not persons, are its primary object. Persons operate within the framework established by law, but that law is an external, objective framework, not an internal, subjective one. The right of the person and the rights of persons are established and defended precisely by this objectively Christian order. Therefore, what is Christian about this legal order is the principles, the law-ideas, upon which it is based, not the level of faith of those living within it. This Christian orientation also demands a respect for the inheritance of the nation, conservation of its received institutions and laws. Law is rooted in custom and tradition, supplemented through legislation. The courts are bound to the law as the expression of the historical people, not ephemeral public opinion. The major error of modern legal philosophy is its natural-rights orientation, which makes law and the state into the creatures of individual choice, in which individuals through a social contract choose to leave the “state of nature” and form a government and a set of laws under which to be ruled. This whole approach is oblivious to the fact that human social order, being an inheritance, is a higher order transcending individual choice. Modern legal philosophy compounds its error by making natural law into a directly applicable legal standard, or alternatively by abandoning the law to the play of interests, cutting off any influence from higher principles. For its part, natural law lacks objectivity, universal recognition, and publicity in the sense that it can be known by everyone ahead of time; it therefore cannot be enforced by the state. In fact, to do so is to establish opinion and thus injustice as law. God's divine order is the archetype of law, but it is not directly applicable as law. In fact, God commands that the law as it stands is to be obeyed, regardless of its correspondence to the higher principles of law. Human freedom under God is the freedom to crystallize and make concrete those God-revealed principles of law as a positive legal order. In this second edition of Principles of Law, there is no difference in content as compared with the first, but the text has been corrected where necessary and improved where appropriate.
Christian Political Action in an Age of Revolution
Author: Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
Common Law & Natural Rights
Author: Ruben Alvarado
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN: 9076660085
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
Common law is explored as the alternative to natural rights as a means of restricting state power. The separation of powers is weighed in the balance and found wanting as a brake on state power. The underlying root of this inability is discovered in the philosophy of natural rights. Natural rights gave birth to the separation of powers, but neither the former nor the latter has been able to restrain government. This failure is highlighted in detail, and the alternative means to the same end, the common law, is brought to the fore.
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN: 9076660085
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
Common law is explored as the alternative to natural rights as a means of restricting state power. The separation of powers is weighed in the balance and found wanting as a brake on state power. The underlying root of this inability is discovered in the philosophy of natural rights. Natural rights gave birth to the separation of powers, but neither the former nor the latter has been able to restrain government. This failure is highlighted in detail, and the alternative means to the same end, the common law, is brought to the fore.
Treatise on Money
Author: Joseph Alois Schumpeter
Publisher: Wordbridge Pub
ISBN: 9789076660363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
Together with John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter is regarded as one of the three greatest economists of the 20th century. And yet, his actual economic writing has remained something of an enigma. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, his best-known work, was also an unscientific throw-off in his view. His major economic works - The Theory of Economic Development and Business Cycles - have been misunderstood and underappreciated. What has not been realized is that key elements of the Schumpeterian system have hitherto gone missing. Clues to that system were contained in his magisterial History of Economic Analysis, but the full-orbed outworking was contained in his unpublished German manuscript on money and banking. Now published in English translation, the Treatise on Money provides the key to understanding Schumpeter's system. It shows that Schumpeter's famous emphasis on 'creative destruction' is a more complex phenomenon than is popularly understood. In particular, it provides an understanding of the workings of money, banking, and the money and capital markets, that are supremely relevant in the light of current monetary and fiscal policy crises. This present volume is therefore an indispensable contribution to revealing the true Schumpeter to the English-speaking world.
Publisher: Wordbridge Pub
ISBN: 9789076660363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
Together with John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter is regarded as one of the three greatest economists of the 20th century. And yet, his actual economic writing has remained something of an enigma. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, his best-known work, was also an unscientific throw-off in his view. His major economic works - The Theory of Economic Development and Business Cycles - have been misunderstood and underappreciated. What has not been realized is that key elements of the Schumpeterian system have hitherto gone missing. Clues to that system were contained in his magisterial History of Economic Analysis, but the full-orbed outworking was contained in his unpublished German manuscript on money and banking. Now published in English translation, the Treatise on Money provides the key to understanding Schumpeter's system. It shows that Schumpeter's famous emphasis on 'creative destruction' is a more complex phenomenon than is popularly understood. In particular, it provides an understanding of the workings of money, banking, and the money and capital markets, that are supremely relevant in the light of current monetary and fiscal policy crises. This present volume is therefore an indispensable contribution to revealing the true Schumpeter to the English-speaking world.
The Invisible Bridge
Author: Julie Orringer
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1400041163
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 625
Book Description
A historical novel set in 1937 Europe tells the story of three Hungarian Jewish brothers bound by history and love, of a marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation by the Nazis and of the dangerous power of art in the time of war.
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1400041163
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 625
Book Description
A historical novel set in 1937 Europe tells the story of three Hungarian Jewish brothers bound by history and love, of a marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation by the Nazis and of the dangerous power of art in the time of war.
Scriptural Reflections on History
Author: K. J. Popma
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
K. J. Popma, a teacher of classical languages and a special professor of Reformed philosophy at the universities of Groningen and Utrecht, wrote his book during the trying times of the Second World War. The work outlines a philosophy of history rooted in Scripture and takes the account provided by Scripture seriously, without eliminating its historical character, either by spiritualizing its message or by undercutting it through an appeal to science. It takes its cues from the Scriptural narrative: creation and fall, the tower of Babel, Abraham and Israel, Daniel’s Four Empires, and the principal division in world history, the coming of Christ. Popma’s fresh and challenging approach to history utilizes the perspective of the Calvinistic philosophy associated with Herman Dooyeweerd, but it does so in Popma’s unique and idiosyncratic way, and in a style that belies the learning that underlies it. Nor does one need to have any special acquaintance with the specifics of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy to profit from it. At the same time, the relation between history and theology is especially important – “the researcher who never took a peek in the workshop of theology will always be a bungler” (p. 85). "History is a unity, and a continuity—of the sacred and the secular, of the course of salvation history and secular history, of the here and the hereafter. Nor does it end at the resurrection from the dead. “Our earthly task continues, first in our task in heaven, presently in our task on the new earth. Thus, it is not true that our earthly task comes to an end. For heaven and earth belong together and our task never ends” (p. 116). So then, history is not something disconnected from eternity, but continues into eternity. There is a unity between heaven and earth, between culture here and now, and life in the renewed creation hereafter. The aim of this book is to point to the splendour of the structure that God has built, to history in its unity and course. He who learns to see something of that splendour will foster a burning interest for what has happened and is still happening and will happen. He will be afraid of nothing so much as the danger of shutting oneself up in a spiritual prison that makes it impossible to see the real history, even if such a prison displays the finest inscriptions over its entrance and is comfortably and even luxuriously furnished. Nor will he become discouraged when he discovers that history is full of injustice. For he knows that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied" (p. 133).
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
K. J. Popma, a teacher of classical languages and a special professor of Reformed philosophy at the universities of Groningen and Utrecht, wrote his book during the trying times of the Second World War. The work outlines a philosophy of history rooted in Scripture and takes the account provided by Scripture seriously, without eliminating its historical character, either by spiritualizing its message or by undercutting it through an appeal to science. It takes its cues from the Scriptural narrative: creation and fall, the tower of Babel, Abraham and Israel, Daniel’s Four Empires, and the principal division in world history, the coming of Christ. Popma’s fresh and challenging approach to history utilizes the perspective of the Calvinistic philosophy associated with Herman Dooyeweerd, but it does so in Popma’s unique and idiosyncratic way, and in a style that belies the learning that underlies it. Nor does one need to have any special acquaintance with the specifics of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy to profit from it. At the same time, the relation between history and theology is especially important – “the researcher who never took a peek in the workshop of theology will always be a bungler” (p. 85). "History is a unity, and a continuity—of the sacred and the secular, of the course of salvation history and secular history, of the here and the hereafter. Nor does it end at the resurrection from the dead. “Our earthly task continues, first in our task in heaven, presently in our task on the new earth. Thus, it is not true that our earthly task comes to an end. For heaven and earth belong together and our task never ends” (p. 116). So then, history is not something disconnected from eternity, but continues into eternity. There is a unity between heaven and earth, between culture here and now, and life in the renewed creation hereafter. The aim of this book is to point to the splendour of the structure that God has built, to history in its unity and course. He who learns to see something of that splendour will foster a burning interest for what has happened and is still happening and will happen. He will be afraid of nothing so much as the danger of shutting oneself up in a spiritual prison that makes it impossible to see the real history, even if such a prison displays the finest inscriptions over its entrance and is comfortably and even luxuriously furnished. Nor will he become discouraged when he discovers that history is full of injustice. For he knows that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied" (p. 133).
The Children of the Sea
Author: Joseph Conrad
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 1513217224
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
The Children of the Sea (1897) is a novella by Joseph Conrad. The story originally appeared with a title featuring a racial slur, a subject of controversy even before Chinua Achebe published his monumental essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’” Often considered the first major work of Conrad’s career, The Children of the Sea is often read as an allegory on the dangers of individualism and the moral shortcomings of modern humanity. The novella is also notable for its preface, in which Conrad provides a brief-yet-stirring manifesto on the art of literature: “A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.” On board the Narcissus, a merchant ship bound from Bombay to London, a West Indian man by the name of James Wait lies below deck suffering from tuberculosis. Because of the sudden onset of his illness, some of the sailors believe he is faking his condition in order to avoid work. When the ship capsizes in a storm near the Cape of Good Hope, a group of brave men goes below deck to rescue Wait from near-certain death. As the weather improves enough for the Narcissus to be righted, suspicion regarding the Afro-Caribbean man’s health threatens a mutiny among the crew. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Joseph Conrad’s The Children of the Sea is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 1513217224
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
The Children of the Sea (1897) is a novella by Joseph Conrad. The story originally appeared with a title featuring a racial slur, a subject of controversy even before Chinua Achebe published his monumental essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’” Often considered the first major work of Conrad’s career, The Children of the Sea is often read as an allegory on the dangers of individualism and the moral shortcomings of modern humanity. The novella is also notable for its preface, in which Conrad provides a brief-yet-stirring manifesto on the art of literature: “A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.” On board the Narcissus, a merchant ship bound from Bombay to London, a West Indian man by the name of James Wait lies below deck suffering from tuberculosis. Because of the sudden onset of his illness, some of the sailors believe he is faking his condition in order to avoid work. When the ship capsizes in a storm near the Cape of Good Hope, a group of brave men goes below deck to rescue Wait from near-certain death. As the weather improves enough for the Narcissus to be righted, suspicion regarding the Afro-Caribbean man’s health threatens a mutiny among the crew. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Joseph Conrad’s The Children of the Sea is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
A Theology of Nature
Author: Ruben Alvarado
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Nowadays we in the church hear much of the task given to us to be good stewards over God’s creation. We are to treat the creation as a fragile, vulnerable artifact given us by God, to be cherished and taken special care of. The animal and plant kingdoms are precious treasures to be maintained in unspoiled beauty, preserved from the corrupting hand of civilization. But how much of this is derived from Scripture, and how much from romantic secular philosophy? To what extent does the Bible speak of man as steward of the planet? And to what extent does it validate the view of nature as unspoiled perfection marred by humankind’s intervention? This view of nature is based on a philosophical presupposition: the balance of nature. Nature is considered to be poised in a delicate and fragile equilibrium, the slightest disturbance of which will have the direst consequences. But how valid is this presupposition? It is of the utmost consequence that we recognize this presumption. It is what motivates the approach to the environmental crises that we confront. Climate change is one of the major themes viewed – indeed, prejudged – through the spectacles of nature in balance. The Amazon rain forest is another. Global megafire, another allegedly unprecedented phenomenon, is a third. All of these are here weighed in the balance. This book adopts a critical stance to received notions. Its method for doing so, sad to say, is fairly unique in our day and age. For it uses both Scripture and modern science to derive a view of nature. And these two are brought into fruitful cooperation, engendering a synergy that once was the hallmark of the Christian scientific endeavor. What does the science of ecology have to tell us about nature in balance? What does climate history tell us about climate change? What is the age of the earth, and how is it important to these questions? What is the role of carbon dioxide? How important is biodiversity? How serious is the threat of mass extinction? What does the apostle Paul say about the original condition of the creation? What was the Garden of Eden really, and what role did Adam play in it? What kind of steward was he, and how did this change after the fall? What does the tower of Babel tell us about stewardship? What is the place of globalization versus nationhood in carrying out the divine command to exercise dominion? What is the role of the church? What is natural law? And the greatest question of all: why did God create things the way He did? These and other questions are answered here, but as important, there is serious discussion of them in terms of both science and Scripture. Those who cherish a “deep dive” into the subject matter will derive the most benefit from it. Those who do not are advised to seek out a more simplistic treatment, although in doing so, they may be depriving themselves of the benefit of serious analysis. In writing this book, the author has brought to bear not only his years of study in history, philosophy, economics, law, and theology, but also his degree work and professional experience in the field of forestry.
Publisher: WordBridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Nowadays we in the church hear much of the task given to us to be good stewards over God’s creation. We are to treat the creation as a fragile, vulnerable artifact given us by God, to be cherished and taken special care of. The animal and plant kingdoms are precious treasures to be maintained in unspoiled beauty, preserved from the corrupting hand of civilization. But how much of this is derived from Scripture, and how much from romantic secular philosophy? To what extent does the Bible speak of man as steward of the planet? And to what extent does it validate the view of nature as unspoiled perfection marred by humankind’s intervention? This view of nature is based on a philosophical presupposition: the balance of nature. Nature is considered to be poised in a delicate and fragile equilibrium, the slightest disturbance of which will have the direst consequences. But how valid is this presupposition? It is of the utmost consequence that we recognize this presumption. It is what motivates the approach to the environmental crises that we confront. Climate change is one of the major themes viewed – indeed, prejudged – through the spectacles of nature in balance. The Amazon rain forest is another. Global megafire, another allegedly unprecedented phenomenon, is a third. All of these are here weighed in the balance. This book adopts a critical stance to received notions. Its method for doing so, sad to say, is fairly unique in our day and age. For it uses both Scripture and modern science to derive a view of nature. And these two are brought into fruitful cooperation, engendering a synergy that once was the hallmark of the Christian scientific endeavor. What does the science of ecology have to tell us about nature in balance? What does climate history tell us about climate change? What is the age of the earth, and how is it important to these questions? What is the role of carbon dioxide? How important is biodiversity? How serious is the threat of mass extinction? What does the apostle Paul say about the original condition of the creation? What was the Garden of Eden really, and what role did Adam play in it? What kind of steward was he, and how did this change after the fall? What does the tower of Babel tell us about stewardship? What is the place of globalization versus nationhood in carrying out the divine command to exercise dominion? What is the role of the church? What is natural law? And the greatest question of all: why did God create things the way He did? These and other questions are answered here, but as important, there is serious discussion of them in terms of both science and Scripture. Those who cherish a “deep dive” into the subject matter will derive the most benefit from it. Those who do not are advised to seek out a more simplistic treatment, although in doing so, they may be depriving themselves of the benefit of serious analysis. In writing this book, the author has brought to bear not only his years of study in history, philosophy, economics, law, and theology, but also his degree work and professional experience in the field of forestry.