RLGN-489 Discussion Board 1 Week 1
In your response, please address the following 3 items:
2.Identify your "aha!" moment from any 2 of the 4 chapters of the Ecologies book and
provide a brief summary for why that issue stood out.
The combinations of parables Jesus used to teach and draw souls from afar captured my
attention while reading The Ecological Power of Parables. Understanding that Jesus is entirely
God (Titus 2:13; John 1:18) and fully man (Matt. 4:2; Mark 15:37), He has two distinct natures.
1.Explain how the authors of Ecologies lay out a biblical framework for understanding
spiritual formation.
Oxford language defines Ecology as the branch of biology that deals with the relations of
organisms to one another and their physical surroundings; however, in viewing ecologies from
God's perspective, we see a complex and very interactive universe interconnected that scales
beyond our physical surroundings. The biblical framework laid out by the authors of Ecologies is
sharp. Stephen and Mary Lowe observed the Garden of Eden as the perfect ecosystem, saying,
"the first defined ecology was the work of God on behalf of his animal and human creatures in
the Garden of Eden."1
God's creation, set in Genesis, gives us the indication that things are produced, cultivated,
and constant through interactions and connections. Lowe's said it best, "Our task as God's
servants is to recognize this created reality and live our lives, grow spiritually, and teach and
preach in harmony with it."2 The Bible tells us that all things are created for God's glory (Psa.
19:1). God sees all things at a holistic point of view that we can only glance at, understanding the
sun reflects energy to a seedling saturated from the clouds began at the covering of soil.
1 Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth through Online
Education (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 18.
2 Ibid.
RLGN-489 Discussion Board 1 Week 1
Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth
through Online Education (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 7.
3.Identify one question based on the Ecologies book you would raise for further discussion
by your fellow learners. This question should be framed broadly enough to invite a range of
responses.
If we can look upon scripture as a spiritual realm of ecological themes and the scientific
world understands the distribution and abundance of organisms globally, why is it so tricky for
the scientific world to glimpse at God's existence?
My "aha!" moment arrived when I read Stephen and Mary Lowe's piece of the Son of Man
not having certain skill sets, "Jesus did not attain this knowledge by being an effective farmer. As
co-creator of all things, Jesus knew his masterpiece intimately and perfectly. He was able to do
what no other person could to help his disciples understand the processes of growth."3 Christ has
perfect knowledge of all things, even the ability of man to grasp or understand.
As Howard Snyder puts it, to see the "ecology of salvation."4 How can ecology give
measure to Jesus's perfect mind, His impeccable being? It is the growth element attributed,
nature and the Kingdom of God. to ecology and Jesus. A. M. Hunter, a British scholar, "says a
parable is "a comparison drawn from nature or daily life and designed to illuminate some
spiritual truth, on the assumption that what is valid in one sphere is valid also in the other."
Christ parables sought from nature resemble the Kingdom of God and the process of nature
where God is active in both.
3
4
Ibid., 39.
Ibid.
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RLGN-489 Discussion Board 1 Week 1
