William Edgar wrestles with culture and a how Christians should respond to societal issues and transformation in Created and Creating. He also wrestles with the insights of some of the most prominent theologians who have tackled this issue in the past. It is academic in nature, but well-worth the read.

There is no doubt that William Edgar has done a lot of research for this book. While reading it, it felt very academic in it's style and the author goes to great lengths to unpack the history and philosophies behind culture. It is also an in-depth, rich book delving into the Christians response to culture, which proves to be very interesting and will enhance the readers understanding of our own culture and how faith interacts with it. It's worth reading, especially if you want to go deeper and further in your understanding of the role of biblical theology in culture.

Edgar does an excellent job surveying past approaches to theorizing about culture, but this long opening section feels a bit like seriatim book reviews. His constructive work shows more promise, though he is not the born popularizer Andy Crouch is in *Culture Making* nor the master synthesizer James Davison Hunter is in *To Change the World*.

Created and Creating by William Edgar

1. Who is the author? William Edgar is an American apologist and professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He has been called by Charles Colson “one of evangelicalism’s most valued scholars and apologists

2. Content of this book
Part one: Parameters of Culture
Part Two: Challenges from Scripture
Part Three: The Cultural Mandate

This three parts make a "boom" in our mind. Its a good book for every christian. The second and last part of the book was very useful to me. The author touched on some issues that revolutionized my thinking, such as "Creation and Redemption".

This book must be read it for every Bible student. Thanks to NetGalley and IVP for this wonderful book.

I once heard a sermon that contained a lot of good information about the text. At the end, though, the preacher basically said, "Let the Holy Spirit apply this to your hearts" and quit without making any application himself. It was kind of a disappointing experience.

Reading Created and Creating gave me a similar feeling. While it contains a lot of good content and thought, the author was very reticent to draw his own conclusions or follow those conclusions toward practical application. Basically, all William Edgar leaves us with is his belief that there shouldn't be a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular in culture. This conclusion may be accurate but is quite limited. To be honest, it may be my fault that I didn't get this book; it was fairly academic and some of it may have gone over my head. Nevertheless, I think I would have benefited more if Edgar's theology of culture had been fleshed out a bit more and brought to the world where we live.

This book is effective in its explanation of the historical views of culture held by Christian theologians over the years. I appreciated that section and learned from it. Overall, though, this book's conclusions are too limited to be very helpful for me.

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are entirely my own.