God made us to make culture for His glory.
William Edgar’s book, Created and Creating nicely fulfills the promise of its subtitle: A Biblical Theology of Culture. Dr. Edgar demonstrates that, from beginning to end, God intended culture-making as a central aspect of the calling of His people. We must not separate the work we do in ruling and exercising dominion over creation with our calling to make disciples. They are the same mandate, since discipleship entails loving the Lord with all our heart soul, mind, and strength.
The book begins with an overview of the history of cultural studies, and this is important because it shows us that people from a variety of eras and worldviews understand the importance of culture and have tried to make sense of our engagement with it.
Next, Dr. Edgar addresses the contra mundum texts of Scripture – those passages that seem to tell us to have nothing to do with the world, but to concentrate only on purely spiritual matters. He correctly shows that these texts are speaking more the an attitude of loving the world or being captured by the spirit of the world, rather than of being engaged in cultural activities.
The bulk of the book is a Biblical and theological study of the cultural mandate, beginning in Genesis 1 and 2 and extending throughout the Bible. At each step in the process, three central aspects of God’s covenant with His people are reviewed: the blessing of knowing God, the mandate to be fruitful and multiply, and the instruction to exercise dominion over creation. Dr. Edgar demonstrates convincingly that, at each stage in the progress of redemption and the unfolding of divine revelation, these three facets of our calling are clearly in view, and clearly indicate that we must be involved in cultural activities as part of seeking the Kingdom, righteousness, and glory of God.
This book establishes a solid Biblical foundation for Christians to study and engage in cultural activities. The title is a bit misleading, since it suggests a bit more practical guidance in the work of culture-making. Dr. Edgar seems to be aware of this, as he clarifies in his epilog, but he explains that his purpose is to lay a foundation for culture, not to deal with the practicalities of how to engage it.
And in this, he succeeds quite well. This book enlarges our understand-ing of Christ’s work of salvation and His rule at the Father’s right hand. It challenges the reader to examine all aspects of his life in culture, and to consider how to engage culture in ways that help us to fulfill our calling to the Kingdom and glory of God.
