This book is dedicated to our three wonderful daughters-in-law, Darrah, Whitney, and Julie.
They have helped make our sons the splendid men they are, and they have given us eleven precious grandchildren, Augustine, Anastasia, Magdalen, Catherine, Piers, Margaret Rose, Florence, BIP, Phinehas, Simeon, and Thaddeus Bede.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Illustration
1. RECOVERING A LOST VISION
2. THE BIBLE: A World of Types, Key to Types in All the Worlds
3. NATURE: Sermons in Stones
4. SCIENCE: The Wonder of the Universe
5. LAW: The Moral Argument
6. HISTORY: Images of God in the Histories of Peoples
7. ANIMALS: The Zoological World Bursting with Signs
8. SEX: The Language of the Body
9. SPORTS: Its Agonies and Ecstasies
10. WORLD RELIGIONS: So Similar and Yet So Different
11. A NEW WORLD: Believing Is Seeing
Appendix: Theological ObjectionsLuther and Barth
Scripture Index
Subject Index
Back Cover
Preface
Many years ago I happened upon a notebook that Jonathan Edwards (170358) had kept throughout his life. He titled the notebook Images of Divine Things. In this notebook, now about eighty-five pages, Edwards jotted notes on the resemblances to the Triune God and his ways that he saw in the world around him. By world, I mean not only nature but also what we call human relations. I was immediately enthralled.
This notebook opened a whole new world to me. I began to see beauty and riches in the stars above and the world beneath and pointers to gospel truths in multiple dimensions of reality. Later when I started to explore the history of Christian thought, I discovered that this Edwardsean way of seeing the world was not uncommon in previous Christian theology. In fact, it was the norm.
But in the twentieth century this way of seeing was lost in many sectors of the Christian church for reasons that I will explain. The reasons are now understandable, but the effect was a terrible loss to the faith of millions.
This book is an attempt to retrieve a profoundly Christian way of seeing reality. My prayer is that it adds depth and beauty to the faith of believers in this new century. I hope it also speaks to seekers who have caught a glimpse of the wonder and beauty of life and wonder where those glimpses have come from.
. WJE 11:51135.
Acknowledgments
As always, my wife, Jean, was a daily inspiration as I wrote this book on sabbatical. We were living with our oldest son and his wife and their six kids at the time. My gratitude goes to them for putting up with Grandpa as he wrote and wrote, day after day, while enjoying their laughter, questions, and long conversations.
I am deeply indebted to my editor Dave Nelson, who is becoming one of this countrys premier theological book editors. He has smoothed the way all along and made excellent suggestions throughout.
I am also grateful for the invitations of Dallas Theological Seminary to deliver their Griffith-Thomas lectures for 2017 and St. John Lutheran Church in Roanoke, Virginia, to be the speaker at their annual theological weekend. Both series helped me think through and then revise some of the chapters that follow.
Thanks are also due to the following readers who gave input: Michael McClymond, Mark Harris, Matt Franck, Robert Benne, Paul Hinlicky, Brian Bolt, Hans Boersma, Josh Reeves, Ralph Wood, Alan Pieratt, Sean McDermott, Ryan McDermott, and Mark Graham. I am sure I did not use their suggestions in the ways most of them thought I should, and whatever distortions remain should not be attributed to any of them.
Special thanks are due to Paula Gibson for what I think is a superb cover. Thanks are also due to my excellent student Justin Hendrix for his copyediting work.
Abbreviations
AE | Luthers Works: American Edition . Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann. 55 vols. St. Louis: Concordia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955. |
AH | Irenaeus, Against Heresies . In The Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. 1885. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988. |
CD | Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics . 14 vols. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010. |
CSCO | Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Edited by Jean Baptiste Chabot et al. Paris, 1903. |
WA | D. Martin Luthers Werke . Weimarer Ausgabe. 121 vols. Weimar: H. Bhlaus Nachfolger, 18832009. |
WJE | Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards . New Haven: Yale University Press. Vol. 2, Religious Affections , edited by John E. Smith (2009). Vol. 8, Ethical Writings , edited by Paul Ramsey (1989). Vol. 9, A History of the Work of Redemption , edited by John F. Wilson (1989). Vol. 10, Sermons and Discourses, 17201723 , edited by Wilson H. Kimnach (1992). Vol. 11, Typological Writings , edited by Wallace E. Anderson and Mason I. Lowance Jr. (1993). Vol. 13, The Miscellanies, a500 , edited by Thomas A. Schafer (1994). Vol. 14, Sermons and Discourses, 17231729 , edited by Kenneth P. Minkema (1997). Vol. 16, Letters and Personal Writings , edited by George S. Claghorn (1998). Vol. 18, The Miscellanies, 501832 , edited by Ava Chamberlain (2000). Vol. 20, The Miscellanies, 8331152 , edited by Amy Plantinga Pauw. Vol. 23, The Miscellanies, 11531360 , edited by Douglas A. Sweeney. |
Recovering a Lost Vision
Most people in the world wander through life without seeing its full meaning. Christians know its meaning but often miss the embedded meaning in the world all around them. They know that God created the world and that he will bring the world to an end. Some know that the end will not take his people to a heaven in the sky but to a renewed world right here. But most Christians have been trained not to see the meaning of the innumerable parts of this world, or the meaning of the world itself. They have been conditioned to see beyond the earth and its heavens to a realm fundamentally removed from what they can see. They miss the glory of the Lord that is all around themin this world and these heavenswhich the seraphim extolled to Isaiah (Isa. 6:3) and the great liturgies proclaim: Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
Let me try to illustrate how we can see and not see at the same time. Try staring at the four dots in the picture on the previous page for 3060 seconds. Next close your eyes, and then look at a bright wall. You will see an image of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6 ESV). Of course this is only an image and not the refulgent glory. Yet it demonstrates my point: the glory of the Lord is right in front of us, but we usually dont see it.