This was also part of that conversation on enjoyment of the fruits of exploition mentioned in the previous post.

This has been a wonderful thread to follow. It seems yet another confirmation of the notion of total depravity. Try to posit any morally pure achievement or accomplishment. Is the petroleum you use morally tainted by the destruction of Alberta’s water supply? Has your electricity been purchased at the expense of salmon runs? Is that shirt you’re wearing been made affordable by “free zone” sweatshop infrastructure? Was the free zone powered by a dirty coal burning plant?

For my council meetings I often use a Tim Keller sermon for “council development” and this month I used a sermon he did on “cultural renewal”  where he borrowed heavily from Richard Mouw’s ideas on Isaiah 60 (outline of the sermon: http://bit.ly/CPxdg) In the consummation God will claim and redeem all the good product of human culture making from all of history. That is a breathtakingly hopeful thought.

I don’t know how many languages are lost and forgotten each year. I don’t know how many cultures: cooking, art, customs, ways of relating, perspectives, ideas, are lost each year. When you imagine all of this loss (on top of biological loss due to ecological devastation) it staggers the mind and can weight down the spirit.

Add to this vision of the redemption of human history the additional notion that we will spend eternity doing culture.

I think we can get a sense of this from how time seems to morally wash away the stain of human achievement from the experience of the sufferer’s children’s children. The descendants of the tyrants and forced laborers alike revel in the accomplishment of the great wall of China.