| dc.description.abstract | This essay is an abbreviated version of an inaugural lecture, read on 24 October
2007 at the University of the Western Cape. It investigates the role of cosmological
narratives that help people to understand where they come from, who they are, how
they can cope with the demands of life and with evil, and where they are going to. It
focuses on one such a narrative, namely the Christian story of God’s work of
creation, evolution, the emergence of human beings and human culture, the distortions
resulting from human sin, God’s providence, redemption, the formation of
the church, its ministries and missions and the consummation of all things. These
themes have traditionally been captured under the notion of ‘God’s economy’. This
term is derived from the Greek word oikos which is understood in the Christian
tradition as ‘the whole household of God’. In contemporary ecumenical theology
this term provides a clue as to how the moral of this story may be understood to
address ecological degradation, economic injustices and ecumenical fellowship. The
argument of the essay is that a retrieval of the underlying narrative structure of the
story of God’s work can help to avoid the ways in which one ‘chapter’ of the story
tends to be subsumed under another. | en_US |
