The Constant
GARDENER
The value of reformational thinking
REFORMATIONAL THOUGHT IS DISTINCTIVE
The Ezra Institute is a confessional Christian think-tank engaged in scholarship and intensive biblical worldview teaching and training, exploring cultural apologetics, Christian philosophy and mission theology as they each grow out of that worldview – all in intimate relation to the central thrust of Scripture, the kingdom of God. As such, I am often asked about what characterizes or distinguishes our thinking about these issues within the broad rubric of evangelicalism. Why would someone invest their time or finances in our programs and resources in view of so many more readily familiar choices? This is a fair question and one that I hope to answer in this article. The term we have chosen that best describes the orientation of our thought is reformational due to our debt to the leading thinker of the sixteenth century Reformation, John Calvin and the many who built consistently on that foundation – especially the Dutch Kuyperian and English Puritan traditions – and our conviction that Christian thinking must always be in reform in terms of God’s Word and geared toward cultural reformation within God’s world. I have never tired of observing that the word ‘culture’ shares a common root with such earthy words as ‘cultivate,’ and shows up in words like ‘agriculture,’ ‘horticulture,’ and so on. When it comes to human culture, the question is not whether we will shape culture, but what kind of society will we cultivate. That is to say, as imagebearers of God, we are inescapably cultural creatures. We have been placed in this world as in a garden, to tend, develop and care for it. It only remains to be seen whether we cultivate it in a godly or a rebellious way. In what follows I hope Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
to show how reformational thinking understands and pursues the human cultural task in imitation of the original Gardener and as an offering of praise to the living God. REFORMATIONAL THOUGHT IS MORE THAN THINKING ABOUT THINKING
It is of primary importance to point out that reformational thought is not simply concerned with analytical thinking as such, but with what living life to the full is all about – for that is why Christ, who is at the root of our thought, was made manifest (John 10:10). Consequently, reformational thinking is not interested in a narrow, intellectualized faith or scholastic, rationalistic apologetics. Though we must obey Christ’s command to love God with all our mind (Mark 12:30), it would be a mistake to regard intensive and focused reflection on the full implications of God’s Word-revelation as an abstract, speculative intellectual exercise bearing little relationship to life in the real world and the everlasting matters of Christ’s kingdom. Christian thinking worth the name does not terminate with tweed jackets, dusty libraries, pipes and slippers or high-brow essays crafted for bohemian scholars living in academic echo chambers. On the contrary, our view of reality is very much concerned with every aspect of real life as God has created and is redeeming it through His Son. Rigorous, philosophically oriented thinking in the grip of Scripture is an act of faith and obedience directed toward the reconciliation of all things to God.
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JOE BOOT JOE BOOT is the founder and President of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity and the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel in Toronto. Before this, he served with Ravi Zacharias as an apologist in the UK and Canada, working for five years as Canadian director of RZIM. Joe earned his Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual Thought from Whitefield Theological Seminary, Florida. His apologetic works have been published in Europe and in North America and include Searching for Truth, Why I Still Believe and How Then Shall We Answer. His most noted contribution to Christian thought, The Mission of God, is a systematic work of cultural theology exploring the biblical worldview as it relates to the Christian’s mission in the world. Joe serves as Senior Fellow for the cultural and apologetics think-tank truthXchange in Southern California, and as Senior Fellow of cultural philosophy for the California based Centre for Cultural Leadership. Joe lives in Toronto with his wife, Jenny, and their three children, Naomi, Hannah, and Isaac.
REFORMATIONAL THOUGHT SHUNS IDOLATRY AND OBSERVES THE LIMITS OF THOUGHT
That being said, because much of our thoughtheritage in the West stems from the ancient SPRING 2020
