Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-13-2019

Department

Engineering

Keywords

worldview, industries, technology, Christian stewardship

Abstract

What is integrally Christian engineering? Or to ask it slightly differently, what does engineering look like if it is faithful and obedient to God’s will as revealed in His Word? I do not think we, as finite and creaturely Christ-followers, can expect to exhaustively determine God’s biblical directive for every facet of engineering and technology on this side eternity. However, if we truly believe that Christ is Lord of all of life and that He calls us to grateful service in everything we do, we need to continue to wrestle with these questions. One framework to help navigate these questions that has been proposed and previously presented consists of five guiding principles for engineering. These principles were developed by focusing on God’s Word as the Christ-narrative, the Creation-Fall-Redemption story, and applying this lens directly to engineering. The guiding principles have been applied in academic settings including both curriculum and scholarship, and in this paper they will be used to analyze and critique service in a few different engineering settings of the work-a-day world. Reflections on these principles from engineers in different industries including manufacturing, power distribution, building systems, and civil infrastructure will be collected and presented to shed light on how it makes a difference in the daily lives of engineers to view their work through a distinctively Christian lens. My prayer is that this work will help us continue to learn how to engineer in a way that gives all glory to God as we live in the already and not yet of Christ’s kingdom.

Comments

Paper presented at the Christian Engineering Conference held at Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa, July 11-13, 2019.

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