Engaging God's World Analysis

A.
In his book, Engaging God’s world, Plantinga made a clear distinction between a “prime citizen” and a “good citizen” in the Kingdom of God. He described the “good citizen” as a person who accepts Jesus’s commission and the “prime citizen” as “someone who accepts this commission with enthusiasm (pg 110). From this description, it is obvious that enthusiasm is really what separate the “prime citizen” from the “good citizen”. Plantinga continued in his comparison of the two citizens by stating that the “good citizen likes the kingdom of God just fine, but the “ prime citizen” passionately yearns for the kingdom” (pg 110). This description also indicate that the “good citizen” lack passion for the kingdom of God as oppose to the “prime citizen”. …show more content…
That is why Plantinga 's claim that Christians are to be “prime citizens’ in the kingdom of God because ultimately, that gives us reasons, and a sense of identity. When Plantinga claimed that Christians are to be “prime citizens” of the Kingdom of God, he means that we should long for God, cares for God 's world, strives first for the kingdom of God. For Plantinga, as Christians, we are to be “prime citizens” of the kingdom of God in such that we should passionately yearns for the kingdom of God and enroll in God’s project as if it were our own. That is the absolute purpose of our citizenship in the kingdom of …show more content…
He continues to state that “the practices of Christian worship function as the altar of Christian formation, the heart and soul, the center of gravity of the task of discipleship”. What Jamie smith means in that second quotes there is that worship affect us at a pre-cognitive level. Worship shapes us, train our hearts and begin to have a ripple effect on our lives and the things that we do. He means that the practices of Christian worship are meant to uplift our hearts to God and bring us to a place where we will then find our true identity,worship gives us meaning. As smith said, worship defines us in a way that it reflects not only who we are, but what we love. Therefore, if we as Christians claim that we love God, we need to reflect that in worshiping Him in truth and allow that worship to take us over, to humble us, and control the task of our discipleship. It’s like saying that as Christians, our lives needs to flow out of the worship experience that we participated in earlier on a sunday. This worship experience then influence our lives, forms and shapes us even outside the context of Christian