Theology for Liberal Protestants by Ottati Douglas F.;

Author:Ottati, Douglas F.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Eerdmans
Published: 2013-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Yonder is the sea, great and wide,

creeping things innumerable are there,

living things both small and great.

There go the ships,

and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. (Ps. 104:25-26)

Finally, then, the image of creation as cosmic ecology helps to shape and express piety’s sense of the distinctive role of humans. The vast cosmos clearly is not centered in us, or even on the particular solar system in which earth is located. Nevertheless, we humans have a special position and worth. We are stewards or distinctively equipped participants, and our recognition of this fact elicits in us senses of both possibility and responsibility. We may use our considerable powers of understanding and intervention in a way that reflects our awareness of the worth both of human beings and of the larger welter of interdependent interrelationships on which we and all other creatures depend. Our persistent failure to do so is, in fact, a distinctively human irresponsibility. And if contemporary political and ecological indicators are accurate, it is a failure for which we are now being judged and for which we may continue to be judged far into the future.

Proposition #4. The created world is good.

This statement has bases in a range of human experiences and sensibilities evoked in the midst of cosmic ensemble — experiences and senses of the fittingness of things, their complementarities and contrasts, rhythms and patterns, interrelationships, proportions, and beauty. Consider a breathtaking coastline, mountains and valleys, stars in the nighttime sky, a porpoise, flowers, grackles, and the human body. Appreciate the routinely extraordinary capabilities of creatures — the bird’s flight, our own flights. Marvel at Chicago’s skyscrapers along the lakefront, a parent’s care for his child, an exquisite mosque, Mozart’s music, a bird’s song, a good friend, an Italian meal, a Scottish folksong, the artistry of Christian Ronaldo as he approaches an opponent’s goal, a young child, the elegance of a mathematical equation. All of these things have their places within the cosmic ecology.

As Augustine enumerated the Creator’s blessings, he extolled human capacities of mind that make for wisdom, virtue, arts, industry, theater, cooking, musical instruments, and song. He wondered at our sense organs and the symmetry of the human body. Then he turned to the rest of creation — “with all its beauty and utility.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.