Systematic Theology

Breath of Life by Denis Edwards Creator Spirit begins not with Pentecost but with the origin of the universe as much as fifteen billion years ago. Edwards constructs a contemporary theology of the Spirit on foundations laid by Basil of Caesarea in the fourth century. This enables him to go behind later divisions between East and West on Trinitarian theology to retrieve Basil's theology as the common heritage of both Latin and Greek Christianity. The book sketches a theological narrative of the Creator Spirit as a story with four great episodes: creation, grace, the Christ-event, and the church. He recovers the radical narrative and event character of the Biblical notion of truth, and presents the Creator Spirit as companion to all creatures in their travail. This same Spirit is imaged as making space for a universe of creatures codependently evolving within the dynamic life of Trinitarian Communion.

Christ and the Created Order by Andew B. Torrance (Editor); Thomas H. McCall (Editor) According to the Christian faith, Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation not only of the nature of God the Creator but also of how God the Creator relates to the created order. The New Testament explicitly relates the act of creation to the person of Jesus Christ - who is also a participant within creation, and who is said, by his acts of participation, to have secured creation's ultimate redemption from the problems which presently afflict it. Christian theology proposes that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word and Wisdom of God, the agent in whom the Spirit of God is supremely present among us, is the rationale and the telos of all things - time-space as we experience and explore it; nature and all its enigmas; matter itself. Christology is thus utterly fundamental to a theology of creation, as this is unfolded both in Scripture and in early Christian theology. For all this, the contemporary conversation about science and faith tends, to a remarkable degree, to neglect the significance of Jesus Christ, focusing instead on a generic "God of wonder" or "God of natural theology." Such general theism is problematic from the perspective of Christian theology on many levels and has at times led to a more or less deistic theology: the impression that God has created the world, then largely left it to itself. Such a theology is far removed from classical Christian renderings of creation, providence, redemption, and eschatology. According to these, the theology of creation is not just about remote "beginnings," or the distant acts of a divine originator. Rather, the incarnate Jesus Christ is himself - remarkably - the means and the end for which creation itself exists. If we would think aright about our world, study it and live within it wisely, we must reckon centrally with his significance. What might such a bold claim possibly mean, and why is Jesus Christ said by Christian theology to be so important for understanding God's overall relationship to the created order? What does this importance mean for science? Christ and the Created Order addresses these questions by gathering insights from biblical scholars, theologians, historians, philosophers, and scientists. This interdisciplinary collection of essays reflects on the significance of Jesus Christ for understanding the created world, particularly as that world is observed by the natural sciences. Contributors to Christ and the Created Order include Marilyn McCord Adams, Richard Bauckham, Deborah Haarsma, Paul Moser, Murray Rae, James K. A. Smith, Norman Wirzba, N. T. Wright, and more.

Christian Understandings of Creation by Denis Edwards Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs? The Christian Understandings series is an exciting new series that seeks to illuminate precisely these questions. Short, concise, orienting-volumes in the Christian Understandings series "fill in the gaps" for readers as they dive into the exciting and stimulating story of Christian thought.

Creation and the Sovereignty of God by Hugh J. McCann Creation and the Sovereignty of God brings fresh insight to a defense of God. Traditional theistic belief declared a perfect being who creates and sustains everything and who exercises sovereignty over all. Lately, this idea has been contested, but Hugh J. McCann maintains that God creates the best possible universe and is completely free to do so; that God is responsible for human actions, yet humans also have free will; and ultimately, that divine command must be reconciled with natural law. With this distinctive approach to understanding God and the universe, McCann brings new perspective to the evidential argument from evil.

Creation ex nihilo : origins, development, contemporary challenges by Gary A. Anderson and Markus Bockmuehl The doctrine of creation ex nihilo has met with criticism and revisionary theories in recent years, from the worlds of science, theology, and philosophy. This volume concentrates on several key areas: the relationship of the doctrine to its purported biblical sources, how the doctrine emerged in the first several centuries of the Common Era, why the doctrine came under heavy criticism in the modern era, how some theologians have responded to the objections, and the relationship of the doctrine to claims of modern science, for example, the fundamental law of physics that matter cannot be create.

Doctrine of Creation by Colin E. Gunton This study by leading scholars from around the world engages with central hermeneutical, philosophical and theological dimensions of the doctrine of creation. Particular prominence is given to discussion of creation 'out of nothing'm the relation of eternal creator to temporal creation, the Trinitarian construction of the doctrine and its ethical implications. The essays comprise: -Robert Jenson on the doctrine of creation -Paul Helm on eternal creation -Colin Gunton on Genesis and on the Reformers -Alan Torrance on spatio-temporal dimensions -Daniel Hardy on creation and eschatology -Brian Horne on divine and human creativity -Christoph Schwobel on God, creation and the Christian community These expert contributions open up new dimensions to an important topic currently receiving renewed attention.

Engaging the Doctrine of Creation by Matthew Levering Distinguished scholar Matthew Levering examines the doctrine of creation and its contemporary theological implications, critically engaging with classical and modern views in dialogue with Orthodox and Reformed interlocutors, among others. Moving from the Trinity to Christology, Levering takes up a number of themes pertaining to the doctrine of creation and focuses on how creation impacts our understandings of both the immanent and the economic Trinity. He also engages newer trends such as ecological theology.

The Gift of Being : a Theology of Creation by Zachary Hayes In view of the critical environmental problems confronting the modern world, reflection on the nature and meaning of the world and on humanity's place in it becomes increasingly important. While Christian theology has done this for centuries, the present situation calls for a serious rethinking of many issues in the light of contemporary physics, biology, and cultural history. The Gift of Being presents insights of the sciences in a way that is helpful for Christians today. Creation theology helps believers come to a stronger sense of their own identity as they come to an awareness of the world. This enables them to gain a deeper insight into how they ought to relate to that world if they wish to find meaning in their lives. This state of being requires a willingness to distinguish between the medium and the message in approaching the Scriptures. It also requires a willingness to take the sciences seriously. In The Gift of Being, Hayes focuses on traditional questions of creation, but also comments on where science is with creation, anthropology, and destiny. He begins by discussing the relation between faith and reason, and hence between theology and science, from a historical perspective, moving to the most current statements of modern Popes. He follows with a summary statement of the possible retrieval of the biblical religious insights that can be distinguished from the physical worldview that stands behind much of the biblical material. This allows for a discussion of the traditional concept of creation from nothing in the form of a conversation with contemporary physics. He then discusses the Christian idea of God as the primal mystery of creative love from whom all of creation flows. With these foundational ideas in place, Hayes looks at such questions as the origin of humanity and the failure of humanity throughout history. He then focuses on the tradition of cosmic Christology. Finally, the theological issues of the final outcome of God's creation and its history is discussed against the background of the current scientific projections of a future for the cosmos.

How God Acts by 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 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 an excitement of how God is at work in the universe.

In the Beginning... by Joseph Ratzinger In four superb homilies and a concluding essay, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, provides a clear and inspiring exploration of the Genesis creation narratives. While the stories of the world?s creation and the fall of humankind have often been subjected to reductionism of one sort or another ? literalists treat the Bible as a science textbook whereas rationalists divorce God from creation ? Ratzinger presents a rich, balanced Catholic understanding of these early biblical writings and attests to their enduring vitality. Beginning each homily with a text selected from the first three chapters of Genesis, Ratzinger discusses, in turn, God the creator, the meaning of the biblical creation accounts, the creation of human beings, and sin and salvation; in the appendix he unpacks the beneficial consequences of faith in creation. Expertly translated from German, these reflections set out a reasonable and biblical approach to creation. ?In the Beginning . . .? also serves as an excellent homiletic resource for priests and pastors.

Participating in God by Samuel M. Powell 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.

St. Augustine by John H. Taylor (Annotations by, Translator); Saint Augustine A thorough and conscientious commentary on the first three chapters from the Book of Genesis, completed in 415. Augustine's purpose is to explain, to the best of his ability, what the author intended to say about what God did when he made heaven and earth. Contains Books 1-6.

Systematic Theology : a Roman Catholic Approach by Thomas P Rausch Systematic theology seeks to understand and render more intelligible the central doctrines of faith and to show how they are related to each other. It tries to demonstrate how these doctrines are rooted in Scripture and develop in the history of the church; most important, it strives to more adequately express and sometimes reinterpret the church's doctrinal tradition, always in the interest of better communicating the mystery of salvation and bringing it into a dialogue with culture. The present text is intended to be concise and accessible, an introduction that explores basic themes in Catholic systematic theology from a biblical, historical, and contemporary perspective, always aware of today's theological pluralism. -- Provided by publisher.

The theology of creation by Robert Butterworth, S.J. The specifically Christian revelation concerning creation and its meaning has suffered from long neglect. Modern theology has been rediscovering the Christian link between creation and salvation. In this book the scriptural foundations of this exciting and thoroughly Christian view of creation are carefully expounded and developed.

The Trinity and God the Creator : a commentary on the summa theologic by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange No description available.