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Created to Create: Joseph Sunde on Earthen Vessels

November 2nd, 2011 | 1 min read

By Matthew Lee Anderson

Joseph Sunde at the ever-excellent Remnant Culture has the goods:

But there is indeed a higher order, an authority that cuts through the perverse consumerism and contorted individualism of this world, and beneath which we can redeem our bodies for the glory of God and orient them toward the proper cultivation of creation. To achieve such an orientation, Anderson argues, we must recognize not only that God’s creation is orderly (and that it is God’s, of course), but also that the human’s proper place therein is as a co-creator.

“Within the creation narrative, humans are the high point,” says Anderson, and we must recognize this position of authority. More importantly, I would add, without recognizing our duty and obligation in assuming such authority, we will certainly go nowhere fast.

By properly grasping this position in the larger created order, we can then begin to view our bodily consumption through the proper lens: “A biblical understanding of creation emphasizes that our consumption should be ordered toward cultivating and creating.”

Not destroying others. Not destroying ourselves. Not consumption for the sake of consumption, but for cultivating and creating.

Read the whole thing.  Due to delays in my schedule, my response will probably come on Friday this week.

Matthew Lee Anderson

Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.