The Whole World

"...Human relationship are an integral part of what persons really are. You as a person are not a cut-off, isolated, individual, like the Newtonian particle, separated from other autonomous particles. Rather, you as a person are interrelated with others, your parents, your friends, even people with whom you disagree. Those interrelationships constitute the very stuff of personal being."

That's a quote from the introduction of The Christian Frame of Mind. The basic idea of the book, and a conviction that has been a part of my thinking for a very long time, is that there's no reason for science and faith to stand in opposition to one another. The God that we learn about in Jesus Christ is also the God who created everything that exists.

In the introduction quoted above, W. Jim Neidhardt speaks of Christian scientists who search for "deeper way[s] of interpreting nature," deeper ways that could only be understood through a faith-filled belief that God's creation is related to God, not just something that came into being by itself. The scientific breakthroughs of believers like Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell eventually led to Albert Einstein's theories, theories that bring a sense of harmony and interrelationship between seemingly separate things, such as, for example, space and time.

The idea, as I understand it, is that if there is One God who created everything, all "seemingly separate things" should be related in some way. It follows then, that there should be no battle between Christian teaching and science. There is no field of study that is stands on its own. If one looks deeply enough, there will be connections between them. Even studies in areas as different as physics and psychology and theology will, at some level, be connected because there is One Creator.

All things are related to one another--so are all creatures, and all people (as in the quote that opened this blogpost). There's a deep connection under us all, a connection that can be understood by us, though never completely. In some way, that deep connection is "of God." It's "divine." God does, truly, have "the whole world in His Hands."

There will always be more to learn about this. But that learning is truly good. All studies are to be honored if we're going to honor our Lord.

It's good to study and expand our understandings. What are you curious about? How will you learn? You never need to be afraid of learning more. The creator of everything, God, is good. And He is Love. We know this, only, because of Jesus.

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This photo is from page xv of the introduction of The Christian Frame of Mind.

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