Church Doctrine

Volume 3: Creation

McGlasson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498280037
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The present volume is the third in a five-volume study of church doctrine. The multivolume set covers the major parts of church doctrine: Canon, God, Creation, Reconciliation, and Redemption. The first volume begins with an introduction to the entire project on why doctrine matters, which stresses the ecumenical, global, and above all biblical horizons of church doctrine as a primary expression of Christian witness. The second volume discusses the doctrine of God.The purpose of this third volume is to reaffirm the traditional church doctrine of Creation, and yet to do so in a way that submits that tradition to the overruling, overpowering authority of Scripture. God the Creator, according to the Bible, owns the entire universe; it does not belong to humankind. We live in service of his covenant of grace; but we do so along with our fellow creatures in a common vulnerability and finitude. The volume addresses the question of how the church doctrine of Creation speaks to the manifold ecological crisis of our time.Church doctrine is not a luxury but a necessity for the living community of faith, by which its witness in word and deed is tested against the one true measure of Christ the risen Lord.

1

God the Creator

In the opening theological summary (argumentum) to his profound commentary on Genesis, John Calvin sets forth the outline of his theological-dialectical doctrine of God the Creator.

On the one hand, true understanding of the doctrine of creation can only begin in wonder: “Since the infinite wisdom of God (immensa Dei sapientia, where immensity means not size but sheer immeasurability by human standards) is displayed in the admirable structure of heaven and earth, it is absolutely impossible to unfold the history of the creation of the world [conditi mundi historia] in terms equal to its dignity.”1 To rightly understand the active work of God the Creator therefore requires a disposition of humility and reverence in meditating on the works of the Creator. Study of the doctrine of creation is no abstract nor abstruse science, but the most practical application of daily experience: “We see, indeed, the world with our eyes, we tread the earth with our feet, we touch innumerable kinds of God’s works with our hands, we inhale a sweet and pleasant fragrance from herbs and flowers, we enjoy boundless benefits; but in those very things . . . there dwells such an immensity of divine power, goodness, and wisdom, as absorbs all our senses [quae sensus omnes nostros absorbeat].”2 For Calvin, it is a stunning paradox: the unspeakably sublime and awesome might of God, the Creator of the cosmos, is known most directly, not in discursive philosophical proofs, but as he is experienced in the stunning marvels of everyday interaction with the natural world on the most basic level of sensory experience. Few indeed, according to Calvin, ever pay attention to the sheer beauty found everywhere in the natural world all around them; those who know the Creator best are those who absorb his work in the sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of the universe. So to make God visible, palpable in his works, is the entire theological point of the book of Genesis, the scopus of the whole work. As soon as the name God “sounds in our ears,”3 our first thought, according to Calvin, should be of the sheer marvel of the natural world, which comes directly from his almighty hand. (At the very least, it is difficult to understand the usual portrait of Calvin as a “this-worldly ascetic” familiar since the work of Max Weber. This-worldly yes; but I would think aesthetic more nearly describes his attitude to the natural world.)

Yet for Calvin on the other hand, the doctrine of God the Creator is completed only by emphatically asserting the absolute necessity of confessing faith. To be sure, God is present everywhere in the natural world, for it is his handiwork; it is so much his beloved creation that it can be described as a “mirror” of God himself.4 The problem though is overwhelming and irreparable: we have lost the ability to see, to feel, to know, to taste, even to find God the Creator in his works. He is there, and the invitation is ever-present to search him out; but the invitation has no more effect on us than to show the absolute inability of all humanity to find the Creator in his creation. Is there no solution? “And whereas the Lord invites us to himself by the means of created things, with no other effect than that of thereby rendering us inexcusable, he has added (as was necessary) a new remedy [novum remedium] . . . For by the Scripture as our guide and teacher, he not only makes those things plain which would otherwise escape our notice, but almost compels us to notice them; as if he had assisted our dull sight with spectacles . . .”5 God the Creator has made his beautiful world to be relished by everyday human interaction; but it is only through the instruction of the Scriptures that we know God for who he is, and rightly understand the world as his creation. He is there; he is everywhere; but without the Scriptures as glasses, as an aid to vision, our dulled and indeed distorted and distorting vision cannot find him. Scripture alone shows us how this is possible; only faith in Jesus Christ rightly follows the way laid down in the Scriptures: “I answer: it is in vain [frustra] for any to reason as philosophers on the workmanship of the world, except those who, having been first humbled by the preaching of the Gospel, have learned to submit the whole of their intellectual wisdom . . . to the foolishness of the cross.”6 Only the cross of Jesus Christ raises us up to know God the Creator in the Scriptures, and in so doing guides us to the joys of creation. Calvin is clear: faith in Christ does not mean a withdrawal from the beauty of the natural world; far from it: “Yet this [the invisible kingdom of Christ] does not prevent us from applying our senses to the consideration of heaven and earth, that we may thence seek confirmation in the true knowledge of God.”7 Nor does he want us simply to acknowledge his works of creation: God wants us “not indeed to observe them as mere witnesses, but to enjoy all the riches which are here exhibited . . .”8 The doctrine of God the Creator is not about reaching an abstract rational conclusion; it is about enjoying the sheer beauty of God’s wondrous world in the most sensory—even sensuous—way possible. Faith in Christ does not lead away from the glory of creation, but on the contrary leads the community of faith ever more deeply into genuine enjoyment of its true bounty. Thus, Calvin.

Central to the church’s witness of faith is our confession of faith in God the Creator. The inner logic of the doctrine of creation is crucial to observe, as Calvin himself already makes abundantly clear. We do not, in the confessing church of Jesus Christ, move from reflection upon the natural world to the knowledge of God. We do not, that is, start with a particular conception concerning the created cosmos, and then move from that conception to an understanding of God as divine cause. We do not do so because we cannot do so, for we are sinners, dependent on the Scriptures alone for the true understanding of God. We start, rather, from the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ that comes only through the biblical witness to God the Creator, and only then move to the surrounding creation. Only the knowledge of God illumines the true meaning of the created universe, a relation that can never be reversed. Indeed, the focus of the Christian doctrine of creation is not first of all on the creation itself, but on God the Creator. The whole point of the Christian doctrine of creation is celebration of the living reality of God, who made the entire universe by the Word of his power, and who sustains all things by the renewing presence of his Spirit. To know God the Creator is to know ourselves as his creatures, which is to receive from him the joyous gift of life. Creation and wonder belong intimately together, because God himself created the universe to be enjoyed by his creatures, who thus find in him their one true fulfillment.

a. Creation and Confession

The Christian doctrine of creation—in the same manner as our doctrines of canon, God, reconciliation, and redemption—is an article of faith. We confess our faith in God the Creator; we confess our faith in the reality of creation. Our confession of creation, like all our confession in the living church of Jesus Christ, is based upon the authority of Scripture, which is grounded in the supreme authority of the exalted Christ. There can therefore be no apologetics in the Christian doctrine of creation; no attempt, that is, to start from a general philosophical conception of the universe, even for the well-intended purpose of arriving at the Christian doctrine of God the Creator. Every attempt to “prove” the Christian doctrine of creation, for example, by arguing for it on the basis of logical, scientific, or metaphysical grounds shared with some general philosophical system, will in fact seriously distort the doctrine of creation itself, and bring dishonor to the One whom we worship, the Maker of the heavens and the earth. For we are led by Scripture itself to the simple and basic declaration that creation is an article of faith, which cannot be moved onto any other foundational grounds: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible” (Heb 11:3). By faith; our faith in God the Creator is not a leap in the dark: we are instructed by the word of God, and so we believe. Our faith is upheld by a given content; and that content points to a divine reality.

Even here in the doctrine of creation—especially here, one might say—it is crucial to exercise the disciplined dialectical method of faith seeking understanding. On the one hand, we reject every approach to the doctrine of creation that does not come through faith in the word of God. Scripture has laid down this rule, and church doctrine follows the rule of faith laid down once and for all. Trying to ground the Christian witness to God the Creator upon a scientific or philosophical basis—even for the purpose of arriving at the Christian doctrine of creation—contradicts the heart of our confession. We are called by the gospel to explore the meaning of our confession of God the Creator. Inevitably, the very meaning of what we believe about God the Creator is twisted and distorted through such an approach. On the other hand, we are not simply given the task of repeating the verses of the Bible, without further reflection. Church doctrine is not simply exegesis, though it must rest firmly upon it. We are not only permitted but summoned by the gospel to explore the church doctrine of creation as attested by Scripture; and...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part III: Creation
• Chapter 1: God the Creator
• Chapter 2: Covenant of Grace
• Chapter 3: Humanity
• Chapter 4: The Way of God in the World
• Chapter 5: Love for Neighbor
• Bibliography