The cultivation of God’s good gifts whether through art, agriculture, horticulture, and much else then allow us to experience God’s goodness in creation. These experiences terminate in proximate ends since God will recreate the cosmos. Yet just as supporting our family today matters, even though we are adopted into the family of God, so cultivating creation matters even though the new creation is coming. The problem arises when the two become mixed so that creation care becomes eschatologically present.
Why reflect on creation? Answer: because God made everything to reflect himself—and he is our beatitude. So pursue medicine, arts, nature, and crafts for the sake of happiness, eudaimonia, makarios, or whatever term you prefer.
Human culture can cultivate the goodness of creation which itself shares in the goodness of God. Or it can vitiate what is good and descend into non-being.
One promises beatitude; the other non-being.
So build well. Love what you create. Enjoy God’s gifts.
How can we do so? Well, that will include pursuing knowledge. Put another way, we should love knowledge or be philosophers.
Philosophy is just the study of what is true. Of course, bad philosophy can corrupt; but good philosophy can edify. But we must know what is to know what is true. So philosophy broadly conceived is a vital disciple for Christians.
Such philosophy does not in any way conflict with being biblical. Biblical theology will drive you to see the world around us more clearly. Creation, God’s handiwork, is here for our sake.
The Bible tells us how God created and how the Logos came into that creation to recreate it. Till the curse is gone, it will never be what it is supposed to be, though it still is.
