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Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview
by
In this brief and straightforward examination of Christians' basic beliefs, Albert M. Wolters spells out the structure of a reformational worldview and its significance for those who seek to follow the Scriptures. Wolters begins by defining the nature and scope of a worldview, distinguishing it from philosophy or theology, and noting that the Christian community has advanc
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Paperback, 155 pages
Published
November 10th 2005
by Eerdmans
(first published January 1st 1985)
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Several years ago, while researching the New Earth for my book Heaven, I stumbled online upon Creation Regained. I ordered it based on its title alone (which often proves to be a big mistake). From its opening chapter on worldview, I knew I had discovered a treasure. As I read what Al Wolters had to say about creation, fall and redemption, I found myself repeatedly exclaiming “Yes!”
Until then, I had read only a few other books that resonated with the vast redemptive scope of Matthew 19:28, Acts ...more
Until then, I had read only a few other books that resonated with the vast redemptive scope of Matthew 19:28, Acts ...more
Summary
Basic to Wolters' argument is that all people function with a comprehensive worldview that covers every aspect of life. If a person's worldview ought to be shaped by Scripture, then Scripture must speak to every area of life. In other words, since worldviews are comprehensive, Scripture's authority and scope must be comprehensive as well. In the remainder of the book Wolters sketches what a comprehensive Christian worldview looks like.
The Christian worldview is summarized under the catego ...more
Basic to Wolters' argument is that all people function with a comprehensive worldview that covers every aspect of life. If a person's worldview ought to be shaped by Scripture, then Scripture must speak to every area of life. In other words, since worldviews are comprehensive, Scripture's authority and scope must be comprehensive as well. In the remainder of the book Wolters sketches what a comprehensive Christian worldview looks like.
The Christian worldview is summarized under the catego ...more
This book changed my life; God used it to speak the Gospel to me afresh.
One of the best and clearest explanations I’ve ever read of the scope of Gods redemption in creation.
Worthwhile especially for Christians who want to understand what God’s redemptive and restorative plan might mean for their everyday lives. A great corrective to the prevailing Christian ideas that separate the secular and sacred and plan ahead in terms of God superseding his beloved creation.
Two themes that stuck with me:
First, this book gives the proper questions for interpreting culture. "What about this is structural?" and "What about this is directional?" I have found these to be among the most important questions I've learned to ask in discerning culture.
Second, Wolters explains God's redemption cosmically. "God does not create junk, and God does not junk His creation."
With these two themes in hand, I walked away from the book thinking much more broadly about my calling to be ...more
First, this book gives the proper questions for interpreting culture. "What about this is structural?" and "What about this is directional?" I have found these to be among the most important questions I've learned to ask in discerning culture.
Second, Wolters explains God's redemption cosmically. "God does not create junk, and God does not junk His creation."
With these two themes in hand, I walked away from the book thinking much more broadly about my calling to be ...more
God created a "very good" structure upon which man was to build. Man fell into sin, distorting that good structure, bending it in the wrong direction. Christ will redeem everything touched by the fall: Grace restores nature.
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Good book. Wolters offers a pretty simple, but sweeping view of creation - God made all of it, the Fall affected all of it, God will restore all of it. The categories he gives are very helpful for thinking through our engagement with the world around us. I would have appreciated more concrete examples of how this analysis would play out. He admits near the end of the book that his goal isn't to give answers, but to help readers ask the right questions. He does a good job of that.
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Excellent. Broadened my scope of creation, the effects of sin, and the power of the gospel to restore creation and unite all things to Christ. Goheen's attachment of these truths to mission is very helpful as well.
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Not especially compelling, although some helpful points. Read for teaching purposes.
Through the lens of the Gospel, Wolters examines the concept of a worldview. In the first chapter, Wolters previews the topic and discusses the concept and implications of a worldview. The writer answers these and many other questions in the first chapter: What is a worldview? Why is a worldview important? Who has a worldview? Having established these foundational concepts, the following three chapters serve as a guide for a Christian worldview. Wolters uses these chapters (2-4) as the basis of
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In the tradition of Kuyper, Vollenhoven, and Dooyeweerd, Albert Wolters seeks to describe the framework for a Christian "reformational" approach to the redemption and restoration of the all areas of human life through the power of the Gospel in Jesus Christ. There are two fundamental principles of this often-called "neo-calvinist" position. The first is the rejection of a nature-grace dualism. The natural, created world (pre-lapsarian) has its own integrity. It is inherently good, not good due t
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Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Eerdmans) was originally written in 1985 by Al Wolters, and then re-released twenty years later, with an afterword by Michael Goheen. Wolters defines worldview as “the comprehensive framework of one’s basic beliefs about things,” a definition he then breaks down bit by bit (I won’t spell it out here, but each word is carefully chosen). He believes that a biblical worldview is best understood by the basic scriptural categories of c
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Using the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation metanarrative, Wolters describes the Christian's worldview as rooted in affirming creational norms by discerning the structures intended by God and guiding them in the right direction. This is very helpful and perhaps even category exploding for some Christians who have been fed a version of Christianity that perhaps locates the antithesis between the city of God and the city of man somewhere in creation, resulting in a sacred/secular divide that K
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“Because of their two-realm theory (seeing all things as either “sacred” or “secular”), Christians have themselves to blame for the rapid secularization of the West.
If political, industrial, artistic, and journalistic life, to mention only these areas, are branded as essentially ‘worldly,’ ‘secular,’ and part of the natural domain of ‘creaturely life,’ then is it surprising that Christians have not more effectively stemmed the tide of humanism in our culture?” -pg 54
Excellent, scholarly, philoso ...more
If political, industrial, artistic, and journalistic life, to mention only these areas, are branded as essentially ‘worldly,’ ‘secular,’ and part of the natural domain of ‘creaturely life,’ then is it surprising that Christians have not more effectively stemmed the tide of humanism in our culture?” -pg 54
Excellent, scholarly, philoso ...more
An outstanding book that takes a fresh approach to the idea of a Biblical world view - a term that has some problems with it. Wolters more theologically oriented approach is much more helpful in laying out a framework for Christians to engage in redemptive restoration. His use of Structure and Direction are very thought provoking as a means of understanding that the earth is the Lords yet sin has spoiled what God declared good. An essential read for anyone involved in Christian schooling but pro
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Though written in a rather scholarly tone, this book is a gem. There were a few views espoused that I would disagree with, but overall, I did a good bit of underlining and "amen"ing in the margins. Reading it was hard work, but it was worth it in the end. Books like that always have such interesting and unique insights. I wish these types of books could be written in a less dry way so as to be more accessible to laypeople.
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one of the best I've read
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While I could go through the effort of writing an evaluation of this book, I'm just going to copy/paste the essay I wrote on it. Two birds, one stone. Best of both worlds. You get the picture.
In “Creation Regained,” Albert Wolters (2005) outlines the basics of a worldview grounded in Biblical principles. When the fall polluted God’s perfect creation with sin, it initiated the need for redemption. Wolters extends the traditional cycle of creation, fall, and redemption to include the necessity of ...more
In “Creation Regained,” Albert Wolters (2005) outlines the basics of a worldview grounded in Biblical principles. When the fall polluted God’s perfect creation with sin, it initiated the need for redemption. Wolters extends the traditional cycle of creation, fall, and redemption to include the necessity of ...more
As early as the first paragraph Wolters states the purpose of this book, namely “…an attempt to spell out the content of a biblical worldview and its significance for our lives as we seek to be obedient to the Scriptures”. He clearly defines worldview as “…the comprehensive framework of one’s basic belief about things”. It is belief that plays a decisive factor in all of our lives. The main subject of the book is that the “…Scriptures speaks centrally to everything in our life and world”, and th
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This short book was assigned by my school's leadership as professional development to all the staff. I've read ahead and finished. It's a helpful read. It does fall prey to what I find in most treatises on Christian worldview of any flavor, trying to hand a finished ideological product to the reader without furnishing the essential foundations to such a product. It has been interesting to hear the questions coming from colleagues who wonder how the author reaches his conclusions because he summa
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This was another book I originally read in college that was fairly influential in the maturation of my worldview (not surprisingly, since it's a book about worldview). It's a bit of a dry read, but the concepts in it are really useful, with a lot of potential for application in all of life (which is kind of the point). I wish there was a simplified version of this book to recommend to newer believers or those without an academic background, as I would be hesitant to recommend this particular boo
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This year is the 35th anniversary of this books' beginnings from Wolters' lectures notes from an intro to Christian Worldview class he taught at the Institute for Christian Studies.
I interviewed him to get a little more perspective on how this amazing, and now transnationally prized theological book has fit into the context of his life and scholarship. See more about this here: https://peterschuurman.ca/2020/12/14/...
He has led a remarkable and providentially blessed life, and this book was a su ...more
I interviewed him to get a little more perspective on how this amazing, and now transnationally prized theological book has fit into the context of his life and scholarship. See more about this here: https://peterschuurman.ca/2020/12/14/...
He has led a remarkable and providentially blessed life, and this book was a su ...more
A Neo-Calvinist ("Reformational") articulation of the Christian worldview offered through an analysis of the contours and import of the redemptive-historical categories of creation, fall, and redemption. This redemptive-historically situated, "Reformational" worldview is offered by Wolters (and Gohen -- see Postscript) as a mediating discipline to be utilized in channeling Christian convictions towards informed and thoughtful contextualization in service to the church's grand mission.
Very good. ...more
Very good. ...more
This is a great, basic book on how to frame Christianity into a worldview (basically, how we think about the world and its problems and, therefore, solutions) that is easily summed up into Creation-Fall-Redemption/Re-creation. Clarifying this framework helps solidify what it is about Christianity that gives us the right lens to look at ourselves, the world, God, and the effects of sin in ourselves and the world. Learning to see through the lens of the entire story of the Bible helps us to talk a
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This is a fairly academic book. Particularly the chapter on creation. Wolters does a good job of laying out the foundation of a Christian worldview. His categories of "structure" and "direction" are helpful in handling God's good creation with wisdom and maturity. This is probably the best, shorter, treatment on the negative affects of the sacred secular divide that I've encountered.
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Powerful book about biblical WV
This is a must read for all believers, a primer regarding worldview and Gospel. Study it with a group of people serious about radical, loving Gospel infiltration of the world, starting at home.
This is a must read for all believers, a primer regarding worldview and Gospel. Study it with a group of people serious about radical, loving Gospel infiltration of the world, starting at home.
Not my favorite style of writing, but a decent look at the idea of a Reformational worldview in looking at the world in terms of Creation, Fall, and Redemption rather than plummeting into the depths of philosophical reasoning.
On Target
That this culture needs reformation rather than revolution is so applicable to our world today. Having a Biblical worldview is crucial to seeing things as they truly are and how they need to be. This book is full of insight concerning this theme.
That this culture needs reformation rather than revolution is so applicable to our world today. Having a Biblical worldview is crucial to seeing things as they truly are and how they need to be. This book is full of insight concerning this theme.
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“For Christians, this renewing orientation is particularly important, since severe social oppression and injustice can easily seduce them into identifying the whole social order ("the Establishment," the "status quo," or "the system") with the "world" in its religiously negative sense. When this fatal identification is made, Christians tend to withdraw from all participation in societal renewal.
Under the guise of keeping itself from the "world," the body of Christ then in effect allows the powers of secularization and distortion to dominate the greater part of its life. This is not so much an avoidance of evil as a neglect of duty.”
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Under the guise of keeping itself from the "world," the body of Christ then in effect allows the powers of secularization and distortion to dominate the greater part of its life. This is not so much an avoidance of evil as a neglect of duty.”
“Christians should actively engage in efforts to make every societal institution assume its own responsibility, warding off the interference of others. That, too, is participation in the restoration of creation and the coming of the kingdom of God.”
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