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Made Like the Maker
Christian Ethics, Vol. 2
To be like God is the way to be happy
Christian ethics challenges us to embody divine virtues, fulfilling the command to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” and to “love one another as I have loved you.” But how can flawed humanity reflect the incomparable Wisdom, Righteousness, and Goodness that are the essence of the Divine? How can the creatures align with their Creator?
In this insightful and enriching second volume of his
Christian Ethics
, Thomas Traherne delves deep into these divine paradoxes. He probes the realms of wisdom, righteousness, goodness, holiness, justice, mercy, faith, and hope, delineating how, through divine grace, we can be re-molded into the image of our Creator, imitating Christ and so finding true happiness.
This modernization by Colin Chan Redemer invites contemporary readers to rediscover this underappreciated masterpiece, navigating it without the barriers of archaic language. The edition is enriched by an illuminating introductory essay, “The Spiritual Technology of Christian Poetics.” This essay exposes the connections between philosophy, poetry, technology, and the God of Jesus Christ, providing readers with a profound understanding of Traherne’s harmonious blend of theology and anthropology, and of virtue ethics and Christian practice as a form of spiritual devotion.
Traherne’s eloquent prose and thoughtful integration of diverse strands of thought make him an indispensable voice in Christian literature, a hidden treasure awaiting rediscovery.
Publication Details
- Publisher: Davenant Press
- ISBN: 978-1-949716-21-4
- Publication Date: november 14, 2023
- Pages: 87
- Author: Thomas Traherne
- Price: $17.95
Endorsements
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“Can a seventeenth-century Anglican parson and poet, who has been called “one of the sanest men who ever lived,” speak to our Silicon Valley-induced technological malaise? With philosophical clarity regarding the risks and rewards of modern gadgetry, Colin Redemer answers with a resounding yes. Traherne is here rescued from the wearying admiration of English departments and hurled into the most pressing issue of our time. The result, in Redemer’s words, is a recovery of Christian freedom—freedom “from our fears, but also from our false hopes that perhaps this next human creation will set things right.”
— mATTHEW J. MILLINER, Professor of Art History, Wheaton College
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“When I was an undergraduate at Traherne’s alma mater, Brasenose College, the chaplain called him the nearest figure we had to a saint. Aided by Colin Redemer’s lucid modernisation and illuminating notes, Traherne expounds the life of virtue as the way “to be like God [which] is the way to be happy.” Redemer’s occasionally whimsical introductory essay on technology illustrates the relevance of Traherne’s articulation of the virtues of justice, faith and hope, while Traherne’s treatment of holiness and mercy should explode any lingering myth that he had no real interest in sin or the person and work of Christ. It is to be hoped that this modernisation of Christian Ethics will inspire others, as it has inspired me, further to study Traherne’s works.”
— Daniel Newman, Lecturer in Theology, New St. Andrew’s College
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“ Made Like the Maker offers another entry in the fresh, relevant modernization of Traherne. Though rooted in ethical concerns, Traherne’s vision is broader, looking most of all to theology for his orientation of human reason and human action. The volume gives a lovely and concise window into some of the more creative and fascinating wellsprings of Protestant, Anglophone thought, and for that reason proves not only historically interesting but also presently vital.”
— ANNE M. Carpenter, Danforth Chair in Theological Studies, Saint Louis University
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“An important Christian contribution to (not a contradiction of) the discourse around the ecological crisis and the Anthropocene. Traherne teaches us to love the world, in this as in all ages.”
— Jonathan Geltner, Author of Absolute Music
