How does God manage his entire creation? Has he had a plan, a theme, a metanarrative or something else which he follows that gives a unity to all of his efforts? Shepherds describes the relationship between the Creator and his creation, a relationship that is structurally integrated by the very core of who God is. There is a design within creation that radiates from his personal, unique being. What God created and how he manages it is a marvelous extension of who he is and how he acts. This relationship between God and his creation is not patterned only on his essence or being, but on his powerful and loving will and acts. Rather than a literary grid to which "theme" and "metanarrative" attempt to subject God's relationship with humanity, Shepherds recognizes that all of creation bears the eternal design emanating from God's very nature. Scripture is not a "story" about Israel or the church; it is not simply a story of redemption; it is a window into the eternal design by which God created reality and will eternally sustain that creation.
Coping with Transience is a delightful study of Ecclesiastes that interprets its most significant themes on the basis of its keyword hebel. 'Vanity', 'irony', and 'the absurd' are either the traditional or latest meanings thought to be behind Ecclesiates' hebel, yet each in its own way renders the contradictory or confusing. A more natural, yet still biblical meaning of the word is 'the temporary'. This is the term Eccesiates uses for his advice on how to cope with the brevity of life. Once the word 'temporary' is understood, the book becomes immediately consistant within itself, and supportive of much of the biblical worldview. Coping with Transience interprets Ecclesiates from a biblical and ancient Near Eastern perspective, without the impositions of modern existentialism, or extra-biblical redefinitions of hebel.
How does God manage his entire creation? Has he had a plan, a theme, a metanarrative or something else which he follows that gives a unity to all of his efforts? Shepherds describes the relationship between the Creator and his creation, a relationship that is structurally integrated by the very core of who God is. There is a design within creation that radiates from his personal, unique being. What God created and how he manages it is a marvelous extension of who he is and how he acts. This relationship between God and his creation is not patterned only on his essence or being, but on his powerful and loving will and acts. Rather than a literary grid to which "theme" and "metanarrative" attempt to subject God's relationship with humanity, Shepherds recognizes that all of creation bears the eternal design emanating from God's very nature. Scripture is not a "story" about Israel or the church; it is not simply a story of redemption; it is a window into the eternal design by which God created reality and will eternally sustain that creation.
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