The New Creation

“….the opening words of the ministry of Jesus include the word metanoete. At the very beginning we are warned that to understand what follows will require nothing less than a radical conversion of the mind.” p. 9

“Some happenings which come to our notice may be simply noted without requiring us to undertake any radical revision of our ideas. The story of the resurrection of the crucified is obviously not of this kind… the simple truth is that the resurrection cannot be accommodated in any way of understanding the world except one of which it is the starting point… for a new way of understanding and dealing with the world.” pp.11-12

Truth to Tell, Leslie Newbigin

Professional and Graduate school programs live within a closed system. They all have a set of assumptions which they embody and pass on.

The sciences assume a purely naturalistic reality. As Newbegin writes, they focus on the matter of causes, but have no categories to talk about purpose.

Economic theory is based on entrenched assumptions about markets, the validity of which are questioned even from within the discipline itself (see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-economist-has-no-clothes).

Evidence based medicine isn’t interested in stories of healing prayer, ruling them out of bounds since there is no way they can be measured or tested.

Even divinity students live in a world where the miraculous and supernatural are by and large rejected as plausible categories. Thus the feeding of the 5000 becomes not a story showing Jesus to be the one who provides manna in the wilderness, but a moralistic tale about how the little boy who offered his loaves and fishes is a model for sharing.

But we are called to live life from a different starting point. Our starting point of understanding reality is not the closed system of naturalism, but the in-breaking of God’s new creation, demonstrated in the first place by the resurrection of Jesus. Paul writes that in Christ, “…the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (1 Corinthians 5:17). We often read this individualistically, but the point is not that the former sinner has now become a new creation, but that the fact of the sinner’s conversion is yet another sign of God’s new creation at work.

So what does it mean to go through graduate or professional school with a belief in God’s in-breaking presence in the world as our starting point for life? How will that impact why we study? How will that shape the way we approach our work? Those are questions I hope we explore.

Starting from “new creation” does not negate the insights of science, economic theory and the like that we inherit from the “old” way of life, but it places them in a new context. Just as Revelation 21:24 says that the kings of the earth will bring the splendor of the nations into the City of God, so too we now offer these disciplines to God in worship. The “closed system” of naturalistic assumptions becomes open to God. Who can tell what new life his Spirit may breathe into our work as a result?