1998 issue 5 - the impact of the doctrine of the image of god on western civilization - counsel of...

8/12/2019 1998 Issue 5 - The Impact of the Doctrine of the Image of God on Western Civilization - Counsel of Chalcedon

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man

is trapped in

the

chaotic

whirlwinds ofblind fate.

Conscious

of

the continual

buffeting of an irra tional fortune,

of the sorrow that

befalls every

man

who loves, and above all of

the uncontrollability

of

our llmer

spirits, thoughtful pre-Christian

men

found creaturely life liot a

gift

to be prized but a burden to

be bome or a cage to be evacu-

ated.

The natural man

is

not

the carefree, life-affirming pagan

that

secularism has palllted hinl.

He

is,

in

fact, a frightened

creature, conscious of his

owu

weakuess

and

terrified

of the

massive powers and fates that

determll le his life. p. 179.

(4).

The

goal

of man

must

be

either cynicism orflight from

humanity into the void

of

the

intellectual, contemplative,

spiri tual, and heavenly, be

cause human life is always

threatened by meaningless

disaster

from

without and by

emptiness and dissension from

within. As a consequence,

the

only

answer to

life's essential

meaningless is resignation,

renunciation, or flight. Cleave not

to finite things, leave people and

the world behi.tld, move within or

upward

to

the

One,

or

cease to

care.

These are the

repeated

pleas of the [Classical] writ-

ers .... - p. 184.

What was the

effect of these

Classical presuppositions on

Western Civilization? Religious,

intellectual, social, moral, scien

tific stagnation and darkness

coupled

with the

sense of dread

as

that

worldview and the world

it created began to collapse.

What

brought about the

eventual

demise of

the Classical

approach to man and nature was

the rise and development of the

Christian doctrines ofcreation

and providence. In the place of

the old pessimism and cynicism

of Greece and Rome, Christian

ity brought hope, light, certainty,

justice and intellectual ad vance.

What was

it

about he r doctrllles

that laid the basis for such a

reconstruction

of

culture?

(1).

The relation of creation and

predestination; (2). The relation

of

providence and calling; and

(3). The significance

of

man

as

the image

of

God.

(1). Ultimate order, coher

ence, meanlllg and purpose in the

universe and man's existence

are possible only because

of

the

fact

that

the universe a s a

whole

and

all

its parts, were created on

purpose by an lllfinite:personal

Creator, who created everything

according to His eternal, rational

plan, which plan gave to every

thlllg its place, purpose, meaning

and value.

It

is in this affirmation

of

life's fundamental coherence and

meanlllg because

it

has an

ultimate origin in a transcendent

God

that we

see perhaps

the

most striking contrast between

the Christian view of existence

and that

of

secularism or natural

ism [Classicalism]. p. 189.

Unless human belllgs can

answer the questions -

Who

am

I? Why

am I here? - on an

ultinlate level, no confidence in

or

affirmation

of

any meaning to

life, small or large, is possible.

If, however, the meanlllg

of

life is founded up on a transcen

dent principle, and so is known

by faith, then courage and

significance are possible even

30 - THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon - October/November, 1998

within apparent meaninglessness.

f all that is is created and

upheld

by the sovereign will of God,

then existence has a coherence

and a meaning far beyond the

balance

of

its momenta ry lllterre

lationships. For its belllg as a

whole is related, beyond itse lf

and beyond all its finite relations,

to the very fount of order and

meaning through its creation

by

God. - p. 194.

A man

or

a culture

that

knows this by faith can have

confidence, whatever his situa

tion amid the flllite factors of

life

....

His courage is

not

depen

dent upon the ups and downs of

history, or the variability ofhis

own small aims, hopes and

prospects. He knows

the

Creator

of all and thus

he

knows that,

whatever life may look like

to

his

inlmediate observation, life is

good, for

God

has made it.

And

he

knows that his

own

life and

works, if related to this

deeper

purpose of God, can participate

in an ultimate significance which

can give continuing value to his

own small ends.

Because [Classicalism]

scorns the idea of a transcendent

Creator, [it] has divested itself of

the sole intelligible basis for its

won faith

that

process can

involve fulfillment and signifi

cance. Only if existence as a

whole comes under the purposive

will

of

God is there

the

slightest

ground for confidence

in

its

ultimate meaning.

And

only

if

we

can grasp some assurance of

life's ultimate coherence

and

purpose can we affirm the

immediate meanings of our day

to-day life. - p. 195.

Classical thought, along with


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all

fOnDS ofhumanism and

naturalism, based solely on the

finite powers of human thought

and observation,had absolutely

no basis

to

believe

that

the

terrifying, irrational forces of

nature, inexplicable and uncon

trollable by man, will

notin

time

obliterate man and all his

dreams.

All aspects of man's exist

ence were created

by

God on

purpose-spiritual, physical,

emotional, rational, social.

Therefore

every

facet

and ever

factor of man 's life is potentially

creativeand involved essentially

in any real human fulfIllment.

God

had created

matter

as well

as form .. .hence material being

is

not

in itself meaningless, since its

existence

is

a result of the divine

will

Christians insisted that the

whole man included body

as

well

as soul, and would be saved

only within the body and notby.

its loss. And they also declared

that human fulfillment included a

reorientation

of

the emotions and

the

mind alike, rather than the

denial

ofthe one and the su

premacy of the other. The basic

problem of life, therefore, was no

longer the achievement of the

victory of one factor of man's

nature over another. Rather the

central issne of life hinged on the

relation of every

aspect

of man's

being, heart, soul, and mind, to

his Creator.

In

a positive relation

of

creature and Creator, all the

aspects of life, including even the

physical

and

emotional, became

essential parts of human fulfill

ment

and human meaning.

Having come from God, they

could, if used in the service of

God, become contributing factors

in a meaningful life.

Western man was thus

pointed toward the discovery of

a meaningfulhistorical existence:

for under god

he

could now learn

to accept, to appreciate, and to

improvehis own bodily life in

material nature, and

his

emo

tionallife in humancommunity.

-p.198-99.

2). Man 's spiritual-physical

social existence in history has a

direct link with the divinely

ordained and ultimate meaning of

the whole universe. His goal

is

not flight from the natural and

human. Rather, it was for life

and purpose in this creation and

in history that God created him.

And it is in this life that

God

calls

him

to serve Him with all his

physical-spiritual-social powers,

and with all our unique individual

gifts. .

Because

created on purpose

by God, in the providence of

God, by which He govems,

directs and sustains His creation,

man's l ife must be seen in terms

of a calling, faithfulness in which

calling brings fulfillment, meaning

and a sense of purpose, with the

loss of dread, restlessness, and

the desire for flight.

Classicalism's cyclical and

repetitive view ofhistory coupled

with its pessimistic view

of

the

world, made man app

ear

to

be

engulfed in his natural environ

ment uncreated by God,com

pletely dominated by natural

forces, incapable of self-direc

tion, meaning and of actions of

true and lasting significance. In

such a worldview, history

disappears within the cycles of

nature, and the unique freedom

of

historical existence,

with

its

significant and unrepeatab le

events, never appears

in

penna

nent strength. - p. 203.

History takes on meaning,

then, when man not only sees

himself

as a creature

... [ofGodl,

but also, more Jrnportantly, has

distinguishedhimself from

nature. He must realize

that

he

alone among

God's

creatures is

.not completely dominated

by

nature;

he

must become

con

scious of his own unique

capac

ity for self-direction and

meaning

...

Only then

does

an

awareness of those

elements

of

purpose, freedom, uniqueness,

and individuality, which

are the

stuff of history, arise.

Hence

man 's goal is not to

escape a meaningless

natural

and temporal environment and

to

flee from

the

world. Rather he

has been placed by God here in

this concrete moment for a

particular historical calling as a

part of

he

divine plan.

Obedient

service, not flight is thus

the

mark

of

piety,

and

such

service

is

an historical enterprise involving

material, emotional, purposive

and communal action . - p. 203-

204

(3). The most fundamental

reorientation which

the

Biblical

doctrine of creation brought on

the West was in giving a new

status and value

to man's

exist

ence within history as the

image

of

God. Because

of the influence

of Christianity,

the

West came

to

understand man as more than

nature, although certainly a part

of it . He stands

in

the

creation

as

the image

of

God.

The

funda

mental orientation ofhis life is

to

his Creator and to his Creator's

October/November, 1998 - THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon - 31


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revealed will, rather than to the

natural world around him.

The tension in his life is

not

between the bondage and mean

inglessness

of the

natural and the

desire to flee into the eternally

rational. Rather it is that tension

he

feels before God's judgment,

and the real hope of his life is in

God's grace and salvation in

Christ.

Therefore, although man

began to see himselfas a crea-

ture

with

inescapable natural

needs (give us this day our daily

bread), nevertheless, he under

stood himself as being related

more fundamentally to God than

to

the nature that surrounded

him.

As a creature of God related

in faith and obedience beyond

nature to the transcendent Lord

ofnature, he distinguished

himself from all other natural

creatures (be shall have domin

ion overtb.e creatures), he had

no

ultimate fear of natural

powers (the

rear

of the

LORD

is

the beginning of wisdom), and he

regarded the

lm

of his life to

be

his fidelity in historical action to

[bis] covenant .. with the Lord.

Under God he had been freed

from ultimate subservience to

natural forces, and had become a

conscious, creative participant in

history.

"Biblicalman is historical

man;

a

creature

of

the

Lord

of

history, man is both a part of a

good nature and also transcen

dent in spirit, in freedom and so

in creativ ity to the order

of

the

natural

world. When mim has

this sense

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