The Cultivated Man

Learning from Paul not Plotinus

The great theologian, Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) once wrote:

Culture in the broadest sense is the purpose for which God created man after His image . . . [which] includes not only the most ancient callings of . . . hunting and fishing, agriculture and stock raising, but also trade and commerce and science and art.

We are accustomed to think of culture as that which is distinct from science, and which refers to music, literature and fine art.   The Biblical framework is much, much broader when it comes to culture.  From the dictionaries, it appears that the word "culture" first came into English in the mid-15th century from Old French, from Latin cultūra  a cultivating, from colere  to till.
  It also had a broader application from around the same time of "cultivation through education".  Culture as the intellectual component of civilisation came into the language from 1805. 

Always, however, cultivation and culture was association with religious faith.  The word "cult", meaning not a deviant form of a religion, but the system of religious worship has the same Latin root, colere.  In the Scriptures and the Christian faith, culture maintains this broad meaning and application, as reflected in the quotation from Bavinck above. Culture is the work and activity of cultivating the creation and it embraces all lawful and moral human activity in the world. 

The poet W B Yeats captured the moral component of culture when he wrote:

 "For without culture or holiness, which are always the gift of a very few, a man may renounce wealth or any other external thing, but he cannot renounce hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge. Culture is the sanctity of the intellect." [William Butler Yeats]

The "cultivated man" is the sanctified man.  On the sixth day of creation, man received his calling to be immersed in cultivation.

Until the sixth day, God has done the work of creation directly.  But now he creates the first human beings and orders them to carry on where he leaves off: they are to reflect his image and to have dominion (Genesis 1:26).  From then on, the development of the creation will be primarily social and cultural.  It will be the work of humans as they obey God's command to fill and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). [Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), p. 295.] 

 Christians sometimes go astray at this point.  They divide their existence into two spheres: the sacred and the secular.  The latter they share with all men, non-Christian and Christian alike.  The sacred, or spiritual they share with Christians alone.

This notion owes more to Plotinus than Paul.  This world is above all God's.  He created it out of nothing; He sustains it and all that is in it.  Man is His co-regent, His co-creator, His co-cultivator.  Unbelievers do this out of ignorance and in spite of their rebellion.  They serve Him unconsciously and do His bidding still.  Believers are to work at developing and subduing the creation, conscious that they are God's servants, doing His bidding, and acting as His co-regents, co-creators and His co-cultivators.  

Sin introduces a destructive power into God's created order, but it does not obliterate that order.  And when we are redeemed, we are not only freed from the sinful motivations that drive us but also restored to fulfill our original purpose, empowered to do what we were created to do: to build societies and create culture--and in doing so, to restore the created order. (Ibid.)

As we engage in our vocation and many avocations we co-labour with Unbelievers and remain thankful that they are there.  We could not cultivate the world without them.  We are too few.  Eventually, however, Christians will greatly outnumber Unbelievers as the nations are discipled unto Christ.  For the present we are thankful that all men still do His bidding.  But the cultural works of Unbelief are never good enough; they are always incomplete and inadequate because they are not self-consciously done to the glory and praise of the Creator.  

It is a holy thing to dig ditches and drive buses.  It is high culture in action.  Knowing this fills the life of the Christian with a sense of great dignity, purpose and holiness.  All of life is sacred; no part is secular.  The six days of labour are just as holy and devoted as the seventh--even as it was in the very beginning. 

As we contemplate the year to come, let us be thankful that God has called us to another year of holy labour and service to Him.  Let us be thankful that God has called us to be cultivated men and women.