Theology : Systematic Theology / Dogmatics: Creation

This title deals primarily with Old Testament narratives and traditions about creation, yet from a new perspective.

The need to position Christianity in relation to other religions, most notably Judaism and Islam, has brought about a renewed interest in the theme of creation, which has been off the theological agenda for much of the 20th century. Environmentalists, biologists, feminists and process theologians have all registered concerns, from their different perspectives, about the way in which the traditional doctrine of creation characterizes the relationship between the cosmos and its creator. Furthermore, the hoilism of the New Age and its resonance with eastern patterns of thought seems to offer something radically different from the Judaeo-Christian understanding of the creation. It is in the light of these concerns that the author argues for the doctrine of creation as a distictively Christian article of faith. By recognizing at the the same time that criticisms which have been made of its traditional formulations must be properly acknowledged and accommodated, the author is able to use the best insights from secular disciples to construct a theology of creation which is responsible.

This book explores anew the theme of creation in Scripture, tradition, and contemporary theology. David Fergusson defends the classical account of creation out of nothing but gives more sustained attention than the Christian tradition typically has given to the holistic significance of the created world. Offering both doctrinal exposition and apologetic argument, Fergusson discusses creation in relation to the problem of evil and the fall, divine providence, deism, Darwinian evolution, environmental ethics, animal rights, and other matters. Unusually, the book also touches on the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence. Concise and accessible, Fergusson’s Creation will be particularly useful to students and others seeking a well-informed overview of this important subject.

John Chryssavgis explores the sacred dimension of the natural environment, and the significance of creation in the rich theological history and spiritual classics of the Orthodox Church, through the lens of its unique ascetical, liturgical and mystical experience.The global ecological crisis affecting humanity's air, water, and land, as well as the planet's flora and fauna, has resulted in manifest fissures on the image of God in creation. Chryssavgis examines, from an Orthodox Christian perspective, the possibility of restoring that shattered image through the sacramental lenses of cosmic transfiguration, cosmic interconnection, and cosmic reconciliation. The viewpoints of early theologians and contemporary thinkers are extensively explored from a theological and spiritual perspective, including countering those who deny that God's creation is in crisis. Presenting a worldview advanced and championed by the Orthodox Church in the modern world, this book encourages personal and societal transformation in making ethical and economic choices that respect creation as sacrament.

with a Postcript coauthored by Michael W. GoheenIn print for two decades and translated into eight languages, Albert Wolters's classic formulation of an integrated Christian worldview has been revised and expanded to reach new readers beyond the generation that has already benefited from this clear, concise proposal for transcending the false dichotomy between sacred and secular. Wolters begins by defining the nature and scope of a worldview, distinguishing it from philosophy and theology. He then outlines a Reformed analysis of the three basic categories in human history -- creation, fall, and redemption -- arguing that while the fall reaches into every corner of the world, Christians are called to participate in Christ's redemption of all creation. This Twentieth Anniversary edition features a new concluding chapter, coauthored with Michael Goheen, that helpfully places the discussion of worldview in a broader narrative and missional context.

Authors Bio, not available

Creation versus evolution: What seems like a cultural crisis of our day, played out in courtrooms and classrooms across the county, is in fact part of a larger story reaching back through the centuries. The views of both evolutionists and creationists originated as inventions of the Enlightenment--two opposed but closely related responses to a loss of religious faith in the Western world. In his latest book, Michael Ruse, a preeminent authority on Darwinian evolutionary thought and a leading participant in the ongoing debate, uncovers surprising similarities between evolutionist and creationist thinking. Exploring the underlying philosophical commitments of evolutionists, he reveals that those most hostile to religion are just as evangelical as their fundamentalist opponents. But more crucially, and reaching beyond the biblical issues at stake, he demonstrates that these two diametrically opposed ideologies have, since the Enlightenment, engaged in a struggle for the privilege of defining human origins, moral values, and the nature of reality. Highlighting modern-day partisans as divergent as Richard Dawkins and Left Behind authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Ruse's bracing book takes on the assumptions of controversialists of every stripe and belief and offers to all a new and productive way of understanding this unifying, if often bitter, quest.

Tries to combine the biblical and scientific views of the universe's creation, and looks at how perception of the world has changed from biblical times to the present.

How does the Christian doctrine of creation square with the picture of an evolving universe we receive from science today? How do the badly predatory behavior and wasteful extinction of whole species fit in with a Christian understanding? These and a host of related questions raised by ordinary experience are tackled in this important and original work from theologian Denis Edwards. From providence and miracles to resurrection and intercessory prayer, Edwards shows how a basically noninterventionist model of divine action does justice to the universe as we know it and also to central convictions of Christian faith about the goodness of God, the promises of God, and the fulfillment of creation. Here is wonderfully lucid theology supporting a vision of how God is at work in the universe.

In this exciting work, Samuel Powell offers a new constructive and systematic vision of creation by interpreting it in terms of contemporary science and trinitarian theology. Powell's work unfolds in three stages, building on the multiple ways the doctrine of creation actually functions for Christians. He first analyzes its regulative dimension. Even in all the multiplicity of historical Christianity, he shows, the doctrine commits Christians to a particular set of normative beliefs about the world and God's relation to it. Second, Powell builds on the doctrine's hermeneutical potential. It allows Christians both to interpret the meaning of creation in terms of other prevalent philosophical, religious, or scientific ideas and also to interpret the world, as disclosed by scientific theory, in theological terms. In the heart of his book, Powell correlates creaturely characteristics with their participation in God through the trinitarian persons. Finally, in light of his findings, Powell drives home the often ignored ethical dimension of the doctrine, especially in relation to the environment, our consumerist lifestyle, and eschatology. Powell's bold proposal harvests from two of the most fruitful fields of recent theology – trinitarian theory and religion-and-science – and crafts a creative new vision of how we and all creation participate in the life and work of the triune God.