Nigel Biggar[1] How Christians relate to the world (1/26/2013) from oxfordchristianmind (46 min, 32 sec).
Teaser: [A] vocation is a very particular duty. Just a word about vocation here. A vocation is not the same as a particular job or a particular career. An academic career is an obvious career for an intellectual. Not the only suitable career, but an obvious one. But not all intellectuals who want an academic career are graced with one and that’s especially true right now when the academic job market is so tight. And that’s why it is important to distinguish a vocation from career and to keep your eye on the vocational ball.
Your vocation is to promote the salvation of the world and serve the coming kingdom of God with your extraordinary intellectual gifts wherever the providence of God puts you. On those occasions in the late 90’s when I was hunting with increasing desperation for a full time academic job and I felt sorry for myself . . . (16:02 – 17:43)
Thank-you to John Mulholland, The Charles Malik Society for Redeeming Reason, for bringing to my attention not only this presentation, but also Christianity and the Life of the Mind: An Introduction (Developing a Christian Mind at Oxford, 2/1-2/2014). Note: John enjoyed getting to know Nigel Biggar when Nigel was engaged in doctoral studies at The University of Chicago Divinity School.
Notes
- Nigel Biggar is the Director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life. ↩
About the author:
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!
This lecture seems confused because his exegesis of “world” does not recognize the difference between world as people and world as “world system.”
“For God so loved the world” (people) and “Love not the world” (world system) can be reconciled when this distinction is made.
It ends up being an “all truth is God’s truth” sort of teaching about the value of general revelation in the world (created order). According to Biggar, the world can be true or distorted and we must be clever to discern the difference. However, this misses the teaching of the NT that our loyalty must be to the Kingdom of God and not to the world (e.g., friendship with the world is hostility toward God–James 4).