Stimulus Vol 15 Issue 2 May 2007 |
Table of ContentsIslam: a challenge to Christianity St Imulus: Your service is now boring The Islamist challenge to the western view of human social order Face to face with Muslim students in New Zealand The challenge of Islamic law Models & Metaphors: Is transversal dialogue between faith and science possible? A Christian perspective on religious freedom in a pluralist world Trinitarian atonement |
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May 2007 |
EditorialGod is one and has no son?Confident VisionsToo often I see, from what I actually do, that I don’t so much believe as, only sometimes, want to believe. Usually, I try to hide the secret desires that arise out of the dark places in my heart – but slowly I disintegrate. Indeed, wanting to believe, desiring to trust, hoping to be faithful and fruitful comes only when, against the trend, my cold, sin-weakened flesh is unexpectedly warmed by the breath of God’s Spirit. Then, for a time, my self-absorbed, idolatrous desires dissipate like clouds before the sun – the unity, integration, and love of God seems palpable. On such days, I sense that, despite the ugly things I‘ve thought and done, I am yet a son of God.
Genesis 1:26-31 is pivotal in the biblical narrative. Created by God, in God’s image, human beings are God’s children; we address God as Father in the same breath by which we participate in the outworking of God’s purposes in creation and culture. “Our Father ... Your dominion come, your will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven.” The image we bear is the function we share as we represent God in and to the world, by making God’s character explicit in human life. This is not some intrinsic property we have; it is a calling to which we must respond, something in which we are all called to participate. Our imaging God is fundamentally social, something irreducibly corporate. In our interpersonal relationships – of which the gendered differentiation of sexual union is formative – we are called to mirror who God is. In the best of our irreducibly social being we, together, are the image of God.
God intends human culture and social expression to evidence the unity in diversity of God’s loving faithfulness, justice, and peace. But so much of us evidences disintegration. When the desires of the flesh consume us in narcissistic self-interest, when social participation becomes no more than a means of maximising one’s own consumerist pleasure, when Leviathan holds all in its grip, it’s little wonder that Muslims see Islam as the alternative. The Islamic Ummah – all society at one in submission to God’s will – is significantly similar to the biblical vision of all human dominion doing, and therefore reflecting, God’s purpose.
But, I can’t do it. I’m not even one with myself. “Wretched man that I am …” When I see the gulf, it seems that, indeed, God is one utterly apart – one who has no son; certainly not in me.
“But [when the clouds clear] we see Jesus …” the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, firstborn from the dead, having dominion in all things. Jesus, the Son of Man, is Son of God – in him is the atonement, the at-one-ment. He is the one who reconciles all to God by the blood of his cross. In Jesus we share in the life of God. Even as Jesus, the Son, shares our humanity fully, “in him all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell”, so that, in him, we may receive a new heart and come to ourselves by indwelling God’s love. In the Son, by the Spirit, we are turned away from what makes us ugly and turned to the beauty of holiness.
In this issue several articles consider the confident vision of Islam. At the same time, Tom Smail indicates the Christian’s confidence in Christ by unpacking a trinitarian understanding of the atonement. May this issue help readers consider these visions together and aid in translating belief into the beauty of faithful activity.
Gavin Drew for the editorial committee
Douglas Maclachlan Publisher
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Islam’s challenge |
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“...to be part of the gospel imperative to transform minds and put faith in God into practice.” |
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STIMULUS THE NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE |