Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art by Kuyper Abraham

Author:Kuyper, Abraham [Kuyper, Abraham]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion
Publisher: Christian's Library Press
Published: 2011-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

All of this is simply the further outworking of what we posited above as the general rule, namely, that unbelieving science and the science done by believing Christians are two, and cannot flow alongside each other within one river bed. Even the suggested notion that this evil could be countered by placing a few Christian thinkers to function as a corrective within the schools of unbelieving science rests upon self-deception. Naturally it is readily admitted that something like this is better than nothing. This can serve as a temporary means of assistance and by this means evil can be minimized, at least in terms of the training of students. Young people nurtured in Christian homes who, left to themselves, would quickly drown in the waters of unbelieving academic life, could obtain support from such assistant instructors for their resistance, and be armed by them against the temptation to which they are exposed. But science itself is not guided in this way, and thus continues to operate on a false basis.

Add to this the general impression that science proper comes forth from the unbelieving world, as though the power and impulse for science come from the unbelieving world, as though unbelieving science builds the temple of science, and as though in this respect the Christian religion had no other and no higher calling than to offer criticism here and there, and if possible, to introduce modest correction. The tree remains evil, and continues to thrive from its mistaken root, and the only thing we get to do is to pinch off a few shoots, prune a few nettles, and here and there fasten to its branches some flowers we have plucked from elsewhere, which, if you are honest, are naturally destined to wither again. No, what we need is an edifice of the whole of science built on a Christian foundation. We need the plant of science to be flourishing from its Christian root. For us to be satisfied with the role of strolling through someone else’s garden with pruning shears in hand is simply to discard the honor and the value of our Christian religion.

If for every lectern occupied by an unbelieving educator we could set up our own lectern for a believing educator, then the matter would be very different. For at that point we would have a full complement of disciplines, and what would prevent those departments from joining together as their own university, even if you would have to do this for an entirely different reason? As long as you permit the unbelieving university to be the sole university, and station your people there as a corrective, the lectures given by the unbelieving educators continue to be the required lessons, and those lectures given by your people remain merely elective. The former bear the stamp of what is proper and essential, since they provide the core material, while the latter are merely added as a supplement.

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.