Book excerpt: Culture is a continuing, forward process-the gradual unveiling of truth as life. But often we get ensnarled. We can only imagine culture as a war, a gritty ideological and religious struggle where every arena is bloody with strife: art, philosophy, cuisine, music, literature, science. But at its foundation, culture is about building, not conflict. The time has come for us to beat our swords into plowshares. By realizing the Bible's vision for a cultivated earth, we can build a more comprehensive, radical, holistic culture, resistant to compromise and dedicated to a Trinitarian aesthetic. What does this culture look like? It is the development of the earth into a global fabric of gardens and cities in harmony with nature-a glorious garden-city. Plowing in Hope provides a positive, clear, and colorful introduction to this transformational topic. "David Hegeman's approach is refreshingly different. He maps out a positive theology of culture building rooted in Creation and extending into the New Jerusalem. His wonderful little book, based on sound Biblical exegesis, presents a compelling case for why and how we should build a culture that magnifies God and ennobles men." -David Ayers, Grove City College, Pennsylvania