summary
Dooyeweerd now turns to the second religious ground motive (RGM), the biblical, creation, fall and redemption.
the creation motive
In its integrality (all things are created) and radicality (it penetrates to the root of created reality) the biblical ground motive stands in antithesis to the Greek RGM. Creation, fall and redemption is a Word-revelation of God.
God is the creator of all things – no power stands over against him.
The Greeks know nothing of a creation from nothing. For the Greeks a god was the deification of either the cultural or movement aspect of creation.
A synthesis of Christian and the form/ matter motive is impossible.
God created humanity in his image and revealed himself in the ‘religious root unity of his creaturely existence’. The heart is the religious centre of humanity. Human life is to be directed towards God in every area and aspect.
The heart is the religious centre and temporal existence of humanity. Humanity is also created in a religious community.
God created humanity as lord of creation. Humanity is to develop and disclose the potential in creation. So when Adam sinned the whole temporal order fell away from God.
Only humans have a spiritual or religious root.
Materialist’s view ‘Nature’ apart from humanity – but this is cannot be the case: mathematical formulae by which they ‘describe’ ‘Nature’ presupposes human thought and language. ‘Nature’ apart from humanity does not exist.
Temporal reality only becomes full reality in humanity.
The scriptural RGM is not dualistic.
scriptural view of soul and body
How we understand the ‘soul’ has been fiercely debated – it can only be understood with reference to the antithesis between the scriptural and Greek RGMs.
There is an on going battle between competing GMs: Christian versus apostate spirits.
Is the question of the soul only one that psychology can answer? What if psychology answers according to a Greek GM? Scholastic theology does try to push the church into accepting a Greek view of the soul.
But any conception of the soul that is determined by a Greek GM can’t stand before the revelation of creation, fall and redemption.
What are we to understand by the soul is a religious question not scientific one. It is the religious focus of human existence in which all temporal reality is concentrated.
Self-knowledge is totally dependent on true knowledge of God. This has been lost in the fall.
Apostate GMs see humanity in the image of an idol. For the Greeks the soul was a formless, impersonal life principle caught in the stream of life.
The Orphics saw the soul as rational, invisible form and substance, which originated in heaven. It was characterised by theoretical and logical thought.
For the Greeks the temporal existence of humanity is dualistic: a perishable, material body and an immortal rational soul.
For the Christian the soul or spirit is the absolute central unity or heart of his existence – it is the focal point of existence.
common grace
The revelation of the fall touches the root and religious centre of human nature. It means apostasy from God and affected the whole of the temporal world.
Sin, or Satan, though does not have an existence of its own over against God the creator.
The Word became flesh in Jesus, he entered into the heart of human nature and bought about a radical redemption.
God upholds the fallen world through ‘common grace’ – grace given without distinction between the regenerate and apostate.
Common grace:
• curbs the effect of sin
• restrains fallen humanity
• upholds the ordinances of creation – even the most ungodly must bow before God’s decrees to see the positive effects of his own labours
• reveals itself in gifts and talents of individuals
• does not weaken the opposition (antithesis) between Christian and other GMs
• can’t be conceived of apart from Jesus
• goes on until the judgement
• guards against Christian pride, which leads to a rejection and fleeing from the world
review questions
1. Does nature exist apart from humanity?
2. In what ways can the effects of common grace be felt?
study questions
1. What does Dooyeweerd mean by ‘the whole of temporal order’?
2. What does Dooyeweerd mean by ‘heart’?
3. How does humanity make the ‘temporal existence’ of plants and animals ‘complete’?
4. Compare the Greek views of the soul with the Christian view.
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