Kingdom Triangle, ch. 1

Chapter 1 begins with a very engaging story of Dr. Roseveare who was a medical missionary to Zaire. The story tells the story of God's miraculous provision to an infant orphaned by a mother who did not survive her birth. Dr. Moreland suggests that how you respond to this story says a lot about your worldview: Naturalism/Scientism, Post-Modernist, Christian. From that point, Dr. Moreland asserts that all humans long for drama. Because of this, we can know that we were made for greatness and that something about our culture undermines both the intelligibility and achievement of it. He then demonstrates the language issues regarding 'science' and 'religion'. He also demonstrates the problem in the pursuit of post-modern happiness, which leads to empty selves in a thin world. The implications of this thin world are

a. Nothing is important enough to rise above custom.

b. No real drama is possible (see thoughts on neurosis)

c. No objective value in actions

A key thought from this chapter is where Dr. Moreland says "I merely note that because the centers of power in Western culture are dominated by naturalism and post-modernism, they cannot sustain the drama necessary for their own work to have the meaning they desperately desire. As a result, the centers of power in Western culture do not have the resources necessary to diagnose and properly solve the serious spiritual, economic, political, and moral problems of our age."