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Eg Phd, Mphil, Dclinpsychol This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The Good Work of ‘Non‐Christians’, Empowerment, and the New Creation By Stuart Weir PhD New College, University of Edinburgh December 2011 1 Table of Contents Declaration 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 8 1 Francis Schaeffer (1912‐84) and John Stott (1921‐2011): The Epistemological Problem of the Good Work of ‘Non‐Christians’ in Twentieth and Twenty‐First Century Evangelical Theology 36 2 Thomas Chalmers (1780‐1847): The Ingratitude of Sinners’ Work as Earthly and Heavenly Impediments 99 3 Richard Baxter (1615‐91): The Work of ‘Infidels’ and their Noetic Obstacle to the Vita Contemplativa 153 4 John Calvin (1509‐64): Peculiar Grace as Unsalvific, Pneumatological Empowerment for the Work of the ‘Impious’ 213 5 John Wesley (1703‐91): Co‐operative ‘Heathen’ Conscience with Prevenient Grace 267 6 An Evangelical Re‐reading of the Sheep and the Goats: The Grace‐Empowered and Eternal Efficacy of Good Work by ‘Non‐Christians’ 327 Bibliography 377 2 Declaration I composed this thesis, the work is my own. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification. Name……………………………….. Date……………………………………… 3 AcknowledGements Anyone who is acquainted with the process of writing understands that it is by no means a task which takes place in complete isolation and is therefore in one sense written by many. Consequently, I wish to express my thanks to those who have in one way or another been instrumental in shaping this piece of writing. I would like to thank first and foremost my wife Esther who has given me the opportunity and freedom to research that which this thesis contains. Her unending love and support has coasted me through. My parents also deserve many thanks, particularly for their spiritual and financial undergirding of me through this project throughout. My proof‐readers require especial gratitude; my mum in particular who has spent endless weeks helping 4 me, Ash Cocksworth who read my final draft, Brodie McGregor who commented on several chapters, Jeremy Kidwell who influenced my Wesley and final chapters, and Paul Ede have all performed an immeasurable task in honing this final draft. Their dedication in this mundane task will not be forgotten. I would also like to show much appreciation to my supervisor Michael Northcott who helped me more than ever to appreciate the necessity of doing theology within ones own tradition and who has done much to improve my writing. Professor Northcott’s “lab”, as we called it, was crucial to the exchange of ideas contained in this thesis. Thus, I also wish to thank Jeremy Kidwell, Chad Rimmer, Daniel Miller, Alistair Macindoe, Jamie Pitts, and Becky Artinian‐Kaiser for their insights and friendship within the bounds of academic scrutiny and safety. I also wish to thank my initial doctoral supervisor John McDowell for his encouragement at the start of this doctoral process and for his friendship. Although this thesis has taken quite a different trajectory to that which was initially envisioned, I am grateful for all his expertise at the front end of this big project. Thanks, too, must go to Esther Reed for commenting on my Wesley chapter and to David Fergusson for his remarks on my Calvin chapter. Oliver O’Donovan and Paul Nimmo too helped shape this piece broadly with their thoughts at my first year board. Projects like this one do not spring from nowhere and this one is no exception. In view of this I must thank my friend Darrell Cosden for illuminating the 5 theological reality that everyday work can be of great significance to God. This project in some ways has its genesis in the reading and thinking done in those early years of study as my introduction will reveal. My best friend Andy Fearon is to be thanked as he kept me on the narrow path of following Jesus throughout. I would also like to thanks St. Silas Episcopal Church in Glasgow to which Esther and I belong for this thesis has been written in this ecclesial context. They have been supportive and have protected me from over‐ committing my energies into extra tasks in church life. Lastly, the triune God is to be praised and glorified for all his grace and help through the Holy Spirit via the aforementioned persons to complete this humble offering. I hope and pray it is as pleasing to Him as Abel’s offerings. Soli Deo Gloria 6 ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.’ (Ps. 127.1a)1 1 I will exclusively employ the NRSV translation throughout unless scripture is imbedded within an existing quotation. 7 Introduction The last two decades have seen a large increase in evangelical theologies of work as has also been the case in other Christian traditions. Numerous different angles and perspectives on the subject have been unfolded so as to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the meaning of human work. Prominent themes have included work as a means towards sanctification2, work as a means towards effective proclamation of the gospel3, work that enables a fuller expression of worship to God4, work as a means towards 2 R. Paul Stevens & Alvin Ung, Taking Your Soul to Work: Overcoming the Nine Deadly Sins of the Workplace, Grand Rapids, MI – Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans 2010 3 Steve Rundle & Tom Steffen (eds.), Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions, Downers Grove, IL: IVP 2003 4 David H. Jensen, Responsive Labor: A Theology of Work, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press 2006 8 serving one’s neighbours,5 and even work which might transfer from this age into the new creation as part of humanity’s salvation in Christ.6 The Problem This thesis will provide in a thoroughgoing manner that which has not yet been dealt with in evangelical theology ‐ an examination of the work of those who are not Christian as it pertains to the new creation. That is, this project will examine whether there is any connection between earthly work performed by those who are not Christian and the kingdom of heaven. Protestant theologies (e.g. William Perkins7, Emil Brunner8, Karl Barth9, Lee Hardy10, together with each theological figure of this study) almost exclusively rule that such a connection lies beyond the margins of orthodoxy. Miroslav Volf, however, following in the theological footsteps of Jürgen Moltmann, briefly suggests the importance of such a connection in his Work in the Spirit in an attempt to assemble a framework for a synthetic vision of work. This passing mention by Volf has been the initial idea and point of departure for this study. 5 Lester DeKoster, Work: The Meaning of Your Life: A Christian Perspective, Grand Rapids, MI: Christian’s Library Press 2010 6 Darrell Cosden, A Theology of Work: Work and the New Creation, Carlisle: Paternoster 2004; The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Milton Keynes: Paternoster – Peabody, MS: Hendrickson Publishers Inc. 2006 7 William Perkins, ‘A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men: With the Sorts and Kinds of Them and the Right Use Thereof’ in Ian Breward (ed.), The Works of William Perkins – Vol. 3, Appleford: The Sutton Courtenay Press 1970, 473‐6 8 Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative: A Study in Christian Ethics (trans. Olive Wyon), London: Lutterworth Press 1937, 397‐8 9 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III/4: The Doctrine of Creation (trans. G.W. Bromiley & T.F. Torrance), Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1961, 53 10 Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 1990, 79 9 And since Volf has welcomed others to develop his structures further into something more robust, I will do so as it pertains to the good work of ‘non‐ Christians’ and the eschaton.11 Although I will seldom revisit Volf’s contribution to the theology of work in the subsequent chapters, it is an appropriate launching point for this study and has made a formative impact upon this project’s inception. Volf fleetingly considers the meaning of the work of Christians in light of the future transformation of the world (transformatio mundi).12 He claims that the potential continuance of the work of Christians into the new creation stems from their co‐operation with God in their work. This hope for the eternal redemption of work provides a Christian’s work with its greatest significance, he argues.13 Given that God wishes to retain and redeem some work by Christians for the new creation, might not he do the same for ‘non‐Christians’? Might there be such a connection between the work of ‘non‐Christians’ and the new creation? Volf asserts that if the good work of ‘non‐Christians’ correlates with the new creation that this must also become a pneumatological investigation, for this requires a discussion “on how we conceive of the relationship between the Spirit of God and the non‐Christians.” To support this move, Volf outlines a 11 Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers 2001, ix, viii 12 A point a large majority of evangelicals would disagree with as my chapters will demonstrate.
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