From the garden to the city
I’ve been thinking recently, inspired by some stuff from a recent lecture at CYM, about the whole biblical meta-narrative – and in particular this idea of the story beginning with the garden and ending in the city. Beginning with Eden and ending with the new Jerusalem. I think I’ve read a few authors who have pointed this out and tried to draw observations from it – in particular recently Rob Bell’s new book and NT Wright’s Surprised by Hope.
It’s really interesting to see how we can play around with the interaction between this little bit of theology and all kinds of ideas about the way society and culture develops.
We often talk about the idea of the “myth” of progress which is instilled in the modern worldview – the idea that we are constantly developing towards something better. However, this little bit of theology could say, well actually, why can’t that be true?
Tom Wright talks about the significance of the city of Jerusalem as a symbol of God’s presence – and the same could be argued about Eden. Both are symbols of God’s dwelling amongst his people. In this mix, we can also add the idea of the tabernacle and the temple – all of these are used in the bible to try and express God’s particular presence with his people.
God dwells in the garden amongst his people, in the tabernacle he travels amongst his people, in the temple he kind of presides at the heart of his people, and in the new Jerusalem his presence once again fills the earth and is with his people. There is no need for a temple – because God’s presence finally reaches a fulfillment.
So what can this tell us about God and the way he interacts with culture?
There’s a sort of emergence to the presence of God and to the culture of humanity. Our interactions – and our perceptions of God – emerge over time to become more complex. Or does the complexity simply become more obvious as we journey towards the city?
Can we understand God’s presence within our culture as a presence that will emerge to encompass the whole of culture? How is this different for a culture where we find no temple or church at the centre of society, but instead find God’s presence relegated to the margins?
Should we instead be looking for God at the centre? Or was he at the margins all along?
Does the presence of God – or at least our perception of it – only emerge and develop as our own culture develops? As our understanding of our own interactions between humans develops, does also our understanding of the complexity of God develop?
Interesting questions. Feel free to comment.
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Jonathan
