The Basics of Christian Belief by Joshua Strahan

Author:Joshua Strahan [Strahan, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Christianity;Theology;REL067000;REL070000;REL006080
ISBN: 9781493423934
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2020-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Iain Provan’s Seriously Dangerous Religion

In Seriously Dangerous Religion, Iain Provan considers how the Bible, especially the Old Testament, speaks to the kinds of questions we’ve been asking throughout this book. Specifically, he asks questions such as “What is the world?” “Who is God?” “Who are man and woman?” “Why do evil and suffering mark the world?” “How am I to relate to God?” “How am I to relate to my neighbor?” “What am I to hope for?” Provan considers how the biblical answers to these questions compare with the answers one might find in both the ancient and modern world. He certainly recognizes the overlap between the biblical worldview and the worldviews of other religions and philosophies. But he hopes, as do I, that the reader will see that there are also some crucial differences—and these differences are not just semantic: we say “heaven,” you say “nirvana”; we say “church,” you say “mosque.” Instead, some differences lead to widely disparate conclusions about significant matters such as human dignity, hope, ethics, and purpose. Let’s take a closer look.

Provan starts with the biblical concept of the world. As we’ve already seen, Scripture presents the world as (1) created, (2) distinct from the creator, and (3) good—not evil or inferior simply because it’s physical. Such a perspective on creation was distinct in an ancient context and can be distinct in a contemporary context as well. Let’s begin with the first two points noted above: the world is created and is distinct from the creator. As Provan explains, “In ancient Near Eastern thinking [and in many later philosophies and religions as well], the world as we know it emerges from a process through which the One becomes the Many. Separation occurs within the One, and singularity gives way to multiplicity in the emerging world. The gods of the various pantheons are themselves products of this process of separation and are thus part of the world, not separate from it.”22 You may need to read that twice—or three times! In short, many in the ancient world did not think of creator and creation as distinctly different (as Christians and Jews assume); instead, all things were understood to be part of the One.

Why does it matter whether the creator is distinct from the creation instead of all things being simply part of the One? It matters for a few reasons. For example, if the creator is not distinct from the creation, then everything is presumably bound by the rules of the cosmos, including the god(s). Any deity that arises from the One would be unable to interfere from the outside, since that deity would be a piece of the whole. Such a deity could not be relied on to set the cosmos right, since that deity is part of the broken cosmos. Further, if the creator is not distinct from creation, it becomes difficult to differentiate good from evil, since both good and evil would originate from the same source. Love and hate, selfishness and compassion, patience and rage: these would all be expressions of the One.

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