Monday, July 09, 2018

Buttrick: the gifts of biblical faith

Monday, July 9, 2018
Meditation:
    But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
    —James 3:17-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What are the gifts of biblical faith to the secular university? ... Education can receive from the Bible a faith concerning man far more realistic than the naive faith by which education has tried to live. Not man as “pure reason”: his reason is not pure... Not man as incipient angel: he can turn any structure... to good or to demonic purpose. Not man with his steps on the highroad called evolution: he is relatively free and, therefore, can and does wreck any evolution unless some Grace constantly renews his onward journey. Not man who by his science is sure to fashion a “brave new world”: by science he can destroy the world... Not man as centrally and characteristically a reasonable creature who needs only that his mind shall be educated to build a reasonable world. Not man regarded in any naive faith, but man as potentially divine and potentially unworthy, who stands always in need of help from beyond the confines of the natural order. If education confronts this faith, education will know that the mind’s adventure also, like all things human, stands in need of redemption; and it can then proceed with lowliness, and thus with the power and light which are the reward of the lowly.
    ... George A. Buttrick (1892-1980), Biblical Thought and the Secular University, Louisiana State University Press, 1960, p. 55,57-58 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 3:17-18; Ps. 131:1; Pr. 26:12; Matt. 5:5; 11:29; 1 Cor. 8:1-2; Gal. 6:3; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Tim. 1:5-7; 6:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me wisdom from above.
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