Library: A Time to Keep: creaturehood

Set up the collection for good measure.

eleventy/config.ts

···
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'library/The Doctrine of Scripture');
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'library/Thinking in Systems');
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'library/Reading Papers in Public');
+   addCollectionFromDir(config, 'library/Time to Keep');
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'library/What Can a Body Do');
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'notes');
    addCollectionFromDir(config, 'elsewhere');

site/library/Time to Keep/Time to Keep.11tydata.json

···
+{
+   "layout": "post.njk",
+   "permalink": "/library/time-to-keep/{{page.fileSlug | slug}}/index.html",
+   "book": {
+      "title": "A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life",
+      "cover": {
+        "cdn": "books/thinking-in-systems.jpg"
+      },
+      "author": "Ephraim Radner",
+      "year": 2017,
+      "link": "https://bookshop.org/a/21126/9781481305457"
+   },
+   "tags": ["Ephraim Radner", "theology", "scripture"],
+   "qualifiers": {
+      "audience": "Theologically-orthodox Christians, or folks interested in things that theologically-orthodox Christians think."
+   }
+}

site/library/Time to Keep/_index.md

···
+---
+title: >
+  <cite>A Time to Keep</cite>
+subtitle: >
+  Quotes from, and notes on, Ephraim Radner’s book on human being.
+permalink: /library/time-to-keep/
+layout: archives.njk
+standalonePage: true
+order: OLD_FIRST
+
+---

site/library/Time to Keep/creaturehood.md

···
+---
+title: creaturehood
+date: 2026-01-05T07:10:00-0700
+summary: >
+  ‘Human beings are not self-given; they do not “emerge” from something else in a basic way…’
+  
+---
+
+
+{% quote source=book, location="p. 7" %}
+
+Only God “creates” in any substantive way; and the work that comes from God's hands is always, by definition, some kind of “creature.” Obviously, the Christian faith further specifies this creation as somehow being “in Christ,” but the basic relationship of creature to Creator is undisturbed by this christological specification. Human beings are somehow “made” by someone beyond their scope of action and being. Human beings are not self-given; they do not “emerge” from something else in a basic way, even if we adopt evolutionary biological frameworks for explaining the origin of human life. Whether we are talking about atoms or the forces that order them or hold them together, it is not possible to avoid the question of what it means that any of this exists at all. The question of this original existence of all things and of their order is one that goes beyond physics. The Christian affirms that all things, including our very selves, “come to be” because of the specific act of the Creator. This relationship to a divine act outside of us and outside of our own times makes our creaturehood something singular, in comparison with other relationships we have with people and things, past and present. 
+
+{% endquote %}
+
+The only thing I would add here is that while creaturehood is indeed *undisturbed* by being “in Christ”—we do remain, always, creatures—, it is certainly *changed*. Call it “theosis” or whatever you like, but being mystically united with the creator makes an awfully big difference in what it is to be a creature.