Sound Bites: Wolterstorff, Kuyper, and Calvin

First of all, I want to extend hearty apologies to all of my thousands of nourish readers (give or take) for the dearth of writing. I am currently (and for the next month or so will be) working almost constantly on a Theological Ethics Indepedent Study that I’m taking for my theology degree. I have a tremendous amount of reading to do and it is all really really great stuff. I thought I’d share some of what I read today that is of particular relevance to our discussion here (enjoy!):

“Shalom incorporates our right relationship to– and more than that, our delight in — the physical. As a sign of God’s Kingdom of shalom, Jesus did not just forgive sins and relieve religious anxiety; he healed bodily infirmities. Such healing was consonant with the prophetic vision of shalom which included banquets with rich red wine. And surely the wine of which the prophets spoke was no more some sort of nonmaterial, spiritual wine than the bodies that Jesus healed were nonmaterial, spiritual bodies.”–Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace

“Now if we ponder to what end God created food, we shall find that he meant not only to provide for necessity, but also for delight and good cheer…In grasses, trees, and fruits, apart from their various uses, there is beauty of appearance and pleasantness of odor…For if this were not true the prophet would not have reckoned among the benefits of God, ‘that wine gladdens the heart of man, that oil makes his face shine.’…Scripture would not have reminded us repeatedly in commending his kindness that he gave all such things to men. And the natural qualities themselves of things demonstrate sufficently to what end and extent we may enjoy them.” – John Calvin (Take note of quotes like these and be duly skeptical of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic thesis that Calvinist thought was one of ascetic and dour living).

“If we have ‘food and clothing’ then it is true that the holy apostle demands we should be therewith content. But it neither can nor may ever be excused in us that, while our Father in Heaven wills with divine kindness that an abundance of food comes forth from the ground, through our guilt this rich bounty should be divided so unequally that while one is surfeited with bread, another goes with empty stomach to his pallet, and sometimes must even go without a pallet.” –Abraham Kuyper, 1891 Christian Social Congress, The Netherlands