Development... sustainable??

The story so far...

My study of sustainable development from God's perspective continues its embryonic phase. So far I've loosely outlined what is meant by sustainable and thrown out some thoughts on whether this is a biblical concept or how it might be redefined biblically.

At the end of that post, I briefly touched on a question which I'd like to look at more closely here and throw open to general debate. That question is; "can development ever be truly sustainable?!"

What Genesis has to say about Work

The third theme that I would like to pick out from my study of the opening chapters of Genesis is that of work. Specifically, I feel that there are two key principles that can be drawn out for further analysis. The first is work itself and the second is the opposite of work (i.e. not working, or resting).

And he shall reign... Hallelujah!

Here's a little aside from the heavy philosophising of the past couple of weeks...

The John & James Knight Foundation's programme, Knight Arts, has launched a season of Random Acts of Culture across the US.

Their most recent escapade involved the world's largest pipe organ and 650 classical singers launching, unannounced, into a recital of Handel's Messiah in the middle of a Macy's department store in Philadelphia.

Watch the video and be moved...

Response to the comment 'Aren't we already postmodern?'

This is a response to Stephen’s comment. I intended it to be another comment, but it got too long!...

Postmodernity and Christianity

This post introduces a new topic for discussion – Postmodernity and Christianity. I have tried to explain why I believe that engaging with a critique of our culture (whether late-modern or post-modern – or any other label you want to give it) is essential to gaining an understanding of our own views of the world as it is, and how it could be. I’m aware that it is a Herculean (perhaps Sisyphusian) labour to try to meaningfully think and write about a topic that is so nebulous, contentious and in flux. Also I know that even the vocabulary of post-modernism is (mis)heard very differently, particularly within the church – understood at once as something of a dirty word, and/or a shortcut for being ‘relevant’. Despite these pitfalls, I think the importance of informed, open discourse on this subject outweighs the dangers.

So below is a brief intro (as brief as I can manage) to situate this topic, and kick off some debate. If you’re up for wrestling this through, I look forward to your thoughts:

What Genesis has to say about Value

I spend a large proportion of my time at work evaluating things. As a specialist in economic impact assessment, these evaluations usually involve estimating the value of projects and initiatives in monetary terms. For example, how much has this business support programme benefited the regional economy? Or, have these youth work projects delivered value for money in terms of generating economic benefits for the young people or society in general that are higher than the costs involved?

As recorded in Genesis 1, God built an evaluation programme into his work of creation. He conducted a final evaluation at close of play on Day 6 (1:31) and interim evaluations on Day 1 (1:4), at lunchtime and close of play on Day 3 (1:10,12), close of play on Days 4 and 5 (1:18,21) and lunchtime on Day 6 (1:25). So what was the conclusion of his evaluation studies? At all the interim stages, he assessed his work as being “good” while at the final stage this assessment appears to have increased to “very good”. But what do these terms really mean? Perhaps a social researcher approached him with a clipboard and asked, “Excuse me, sir, could you spare five minutes to answer this short questionnaire? How would you rate your creation (so far)? Very good, good, satisfactory, poor or very poor? Thank you for your time.”