Chapter 4, For the Beauty of the Earth

Chapter 4, For the Beauty of the Earth

I write about Chapter 4, "For the Beauty of the Land," in Part 1 of "What it Means to be a Christian," written by N. T. Wright. I write about what I learned from this book. 

The title of Part 1 is "The Echoes of a Voice," and from Chapter 1 to Chapter 4, and talks about how Christians can listen to the voice of God on earth.  The title of this book is "Simply Christian," but the contents are by no means simple.

The teachings of the Bible may seem simple, but in fact they are deep.  The "echoes of a voice" is a faint voice. It is a voice that you may have heard somewhere in the past.  It is saying that the meaning of the words of the Bible is not simple either.  We need the ears of believers to listen carefully. 

The title of Chapter 4 is "For the Beauty of the Earth," and it is about "beauty."

I find this chapter difficult to understand.  "Beauty" is not so simple. What we perceive as "beauty" is actually not "beauty." The author is saying that sometimes there is beauty in things that do not look beautiful.  "We tell people that the world we live in is real, and that even if it is in a bad state, it will be restored.

In other words, we tell the story I described in Chapter 1, that is, the story of a good creator longing to restore the world to the good order that it originally intended.

In both the Old and New Testaments, the biblical writers, like us, are well aware of the suffering of this world, yet they insist that the created world is the true and best work of God's good creation. They live in the midst of that anxiety.

In the Christian tradition, that story gives meaning to our desire for righteousness, spirituality, connection, beauty, and indeed truth and love, says the author.  (Pastor)