Foundations of the Free Market, 2

Continued from "Foundations of the Free Market"

In the previous post, I have shown that, in His role as Creator, God is the origin of and the model for productive activity. But how does this affect mankind?

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . .

(Gen 1:26)

As a creature made in God's image, man possesses the ability to produce as an integral part of his nature. Yet he does not possess this potential in an absolute sense, as does the Creator. That is, man cannot create ex nihilo (out of nothing) as God created the world.

God gave man two areas in which to express his productivity:

1. Dominion over the created realm -- Originally, God put man in Eden, in a garden. Adam was to turn everything outside the Garden (the non-garden) into garden. To subdue the earth meant to impose the garden template on everything that was not garden. This entails meaningful, productive labor.
2. Procreation -- God told Adam not only to subdue the earth, but to populate it. By themselves, Adam and Eve could not tend a worldwide garden. Therefore, the expansion of the frontiers of the Garden depended on expansion of the work-force. Adam was to share the vision of his vocation with all the generations.

I suspect that the original garden-template included places to produce vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc. as well as ornamental flowers, trees and shrubs. I think our contemporary understanding of parks, groves, truck gardens, orchards, meadows and possibly more were all present in the original garden template.

There is no question that man's fall into sin disrupted and distorted his productive endeavors. Some even say that the Dominion Mandate did not survive the Fall. I would like to address those issues in "Foundations of the Free Market, 3".