Science and the Sacred

Science and the Sacred

The Things of Earth

posted by The BioLogos Foundation | 8:00am Tuesday July 7, 2009

wildflowers.jpg

Source: BaylorBear78 / Flickr

The hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” assures us that as we look closer into the wonderful face of Jesus, the things of this earth “will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”  However, as Philip Yancey notes in his editorial “A Whole Good World Outside,” the hymn gets one things wrong: faith in Christ should illuminate, not diminish, the beautiful world around us.

Yancey discusses how this world outside the church, played a crucial role in bringing him back to faith in God:

I emerged from childhood with a distorted
image of God: a frowning Supercop looking to squash anyone who might be
having a good time. I have since come to know God as a whimsical artist
who fills the world with creatures like the porcupine and skunk and
warthog, who lavishes the world with wildflowers and tropical fish more
beautiful than any design on display in an art museum.

-Philip Yancey, “A Whole Good World Outside”

While the church provides an important community for believers, Yancey reminds us that we can also seek inspiration outside the church’s walls, in the natural world that surrounds us – whether it be in the magnificent order of DNA, or the majesty of the flowers in the field and the birds of the air.

Philip Yancey’s full editorial can be found on Christianity Today’s Web site.

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Comments read comments(4)
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Sam

posted July 7, 2009 at 9:34 am


IT’s true all one has to do is stand in desert on a clear warm night and stare up at the brilliance of the heavens, or travel through the mountains as the masters hand paints the forest with the wonderful colors of autumn as only he can.



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AHH

posted July 9, 2009 at 7:07 pm


Amen.
The illustration using “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” comes from Mark Noll’s excellent book “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind”, which is very relevant to the issues of this blog.



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The BioLogos Foundation

posted July 10, 2009 at 11:28 am


It certainly does, and Yancey mentions the book in his editorial. Thanks for pointing out this great resource!



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James

posted July 11, 2009 at 8:17 am


“The things of earth” referred to in the song are the mundane and petty matters of everyday life, which are especially revealed as such when viewed in light of the grandeur of the Almighty. Interpreting this as any sort of comment on nature, especially a negative one, is unwarranted and silly.
Describing the church as “an important community of believers” (illustrating the error of Evangelical ecclesiology) pretends to pummel the tired straw man of church v. nature while merely stuffing it anew. Who has ever suggested that we cannot “seek inspiration outside the church’s walls”?



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