Why it is how it is?

CREATED AND CREATING:
A biblical theology of culture
By William Edgar
IVP Apollos. 262 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978 1 783 595 488

Since Richard Niebuhr’s seminal book Christ and Culture was released, over 60 years ago, debates have continued regarding the interplay between Christian faith and cultural engagement. Into the arena steps William Edgar with his Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture.

Edgar’s basic thesis is that ‘the Bible teaches that cultural engagement before the living God is, along with worship, the fundamental calling of the human race.’ The greatest strength of Edgar’s book is his close and careful engagement with the text of Scripture, born of a desire to hear what the Bible itself says to the topic. Before diving into the exegesis, however, Edgar begins by surveying the various ways in which culture and cultural engagement has been understood both inside and outside the church in recent history.