From a pastor-friend:

I’m reading and enjoying Nancy Pearcey’s “Total truth: liberating Christianity from its cultural captivity” (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2004). Some quotes from pages 47 to 49 impinge on this discussion;

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“Redemption is not just about being saved _from_ sin, it is also about being saved _to_ something – to resume the tsk for which we were originally created.” (p47)

“It is obvious from the text [Genesis] that humans are not supreme rulers, autonomously free to do whatever they wish. Their dominion is a dlegated authority: They are representatives of the Supreme Ruler, called to reflect His holy and loving care for d\creation. They are to ‘cultivate’ the earth – a word that has the same root as ‘culture’. The way we express the image of God is by being creative and building cultures.” (p48)

“This was God’s purpose when He originally created human beings, and it remains His purpose for us today. God’s original plan was not abrogated by the Fall. Sin has corrupted every aspect of human nature, but it has not made us less than human. We are not animals. We still reflect ‘through a glass, darkly’ (1 Cor 13:12, KJV), out original nature as God’s ‘multiply and fill the earth’ – which is to say, they get married, raise families, start schools, run businesses. And they ‘cultivate the earth’ – they fix cars, write books, study nature, invent new gadgets.” (p48)

“After I spoke at a conference, a young woman said to me, ‘When you talk about the Cultural Mandate, you’re not talking about anything distinctly Christian; these are things everybody does.’ But that’s precisely the point: Genesis is telling us our true nature, the things we can’t help doing, the way God created everyone to function. Our purpose is precisely to fulfill our God-given nature.” (p48)

“The Fall did not destroy our original calling, but only made it more difficult.” (p 48)

“Yet when God redeems us, He releases us from the guilt and power of sin and restores us to our full humanity, so that we can once again carry out the tasks for which we were created. Because of Christ’s redemption on the cross, our work takes on a new aspect as well – it becomes a means of sharing in His redemptive purposes. In cultivating creation, we not only recover our original purpose but also bring a redemptive force to reverse the evil and corruption introduced by the Fall.” (p 48)

“The lesson of the Cultural Mandate is that our sense of fulfillment depends on engaging in creative, constructive work. The ideal human existence is not eternal leisure or an endless vacation – or even a monastic retreat into prayer and meditation – but creative effort expended for the glory of God and the benefit of others. Our calling is not just to ‘get to heaven’ but also to cultivate the earth, not just to ‘save souls’ but also to serve God through our work. For God Himself is engaged not only in the work of salvation (special grace) but also in the work of preserving and developing His creation (common grace). When we obey the Cultural Mandate, we participate in the work of God Himself, as agents of His common grace.” (pp48-49)

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I’m looking forward to the rest of the book. To quote from the blurb – “Does God belong in the public arena of politics, business, law, and eductation? … [T]he public/private split … reflects a division in the concept of truth itself, which functions as a gatekeeper, ruling Christian principles out of bounds in the public arena. … [S]he makes a passionate case that Christianity is not just religious truth but truth about total reality.”