LITMIR.BIZ

Historic determinism is a convenient way to tie up the uncomfortable loose ends in the tragic lives of millions and to explain, at the same time, the exceptional opportunities of many of the rest of us. A belief in an inevitable chain of events or the will of God, or destiny, or historic necessity suggests a formula to justify each situation as inevitable. Here history is seen like a single track, on which people ride in different cultural coaches in the same direction. Every stop, every departure is part of a natural schedule. It readily leads to resignation for many and arrogance for the lucky. Neither Necessary nor Inevitable argues and illustrates that such attention to the sirens of retrospective determinism gives a false sense of security and a freedom from responsibility. When history swallows the importance of people's choices, inalienable rights become inalienable conditions. In Neither Necessary nor Inevitable, Udo Middelmann argues that while written history may tell a story of choices and consequences in a tight mesh, living history is the result of genuine choices that render the record too chaotic to support the belief in a controlling master plan of material or divine intention. Instead we each lay down our cultural tracks with personally significant choices. Turns and stops are not inevitable, and each choice affects the course of history for generations. Responsibility is not reduced by the belief in a necessary history or a willful God.

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In God and Man at Work Udo Middelmann argues that our ideas about daily activities are linked directly to our conception of the world. It is acquired by habit from the surrounding community as well as by reflection and personal preference. A person's attitude about the world explains the reason for most choices they make in work, love, and life. The biblical view of reality clarifies such empirical observations and frees them from sentimental assent. Communal faith may be colorful, but is mostly light in answers and repetitive in form. It lacks the substance to convince and to encourage. Religious cultural habits bind people through poetry and symbols. Many pastors, development workers, and business leaders are often long on devotional fervor but short on holistic connections to the whole of Scripture and rarely address intellectual fear and human suffering. God and Man at Work counters that with an appeal to the Bible's uniquely reasoned discourse and practical encouragement for people in the «imago Dei» to argue with nature and culture, and do well by doing good in every manual and intellectual endeavor. That moral effort will free them from religious enslavement and nature's indifference towards social and material improvement.

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