Christ And The Created Order

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.

This work provides an overview of attempts to assess the current condition of the concept of creation order within reformational philosophy compared to other perspectives. Focusing on the natural and life sciences, and theology, this first volume of two examines the arguments for and against the beauty, coherence and order shown in the natural world being related to the will or nature of a Creator. It examines the decay of a Deist universe, and the idea of the pre-givenness of norms, laws and structures as challenged by evolutionary theory and social philosophy. It describes the different responses to the collapse of order: that given by Christian philosophy scholars who still argue for the idea of a pre-given world order, and that of other scholars who see this idea of stable creation order and/or natural law as redundant and in need of a thorough rethinking. It studies the particular role that reformational philosophy has played in the discussion. It shows how, ever since its inception, almost a century ago, the concepts of order and law (principle, structure) have been at the heart of this philosophy, and that one way to characterise this tradition is as a philosophy of creation order. Reformational philosophers have maintained the notion of law as ‘holding’ for reality. This book discusses the questions that have arisen about the nature of such law: is it a religious or philosophical concept; does law just mean ‘orderliness’? How does it relate to laws of nature? Have they always existed or do they ‘emerge’ during the process of evolution?

Weaving pneumatological, teleological, eschatological, anthropological, and ecological strands into christology, Gunton draws from and interacts with a wide range of theologians, from ancient to modern, to weave together a strong incarnation-creation link and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Christians trying to "save the planet" have to relate "creation" with "salvation." This volume explores the ways in which classic theologies have approached these tasks.

Finding our best humanity in Jesus Christ is the key theme of Andrew Cameron's fresh exploration, in which he seeks to understand ethi as springing from Jesus, and to show how identifying with Jesus Christ brings order and clarity to human life. "In a world where everyone is an expert on right and wrong, this book tries to show how Jesus unifies the best of what you hear. He joins up messy lives" Cameron's accessible, coherent, and innovative analysis is divided into seven parts. Each part contains several self-contained chapters that address some specific aspect of Christian thinking about ethi and life, and each chapter is cross-referenced to other key chapters. The chapters may be read in sequence, or dipped into in any order. Part 1 considers some common ways of thinking about ethi (e.g, rules, rights, values, and results). Part 2 considers some arenas we are unaware of, but that have a huge impact on how we live. Part 3 shows how Jesus Christ becomes a better main category than ethi for determining who we are and what we do. Part 4 builds a "unified field" shaped in response to Jesus Christ, by which we can orient ourselves to whatever is around us. Part 5 examines some means by which we approach the daily details of life within this overall orientation. Part 6 looks at some aspects of our life-package, or "vocation" to see how they are located within the "unified field" Part 7 visits some areas of discussion that cause great disagreement between Christians and others, and tries to show why. Cameron offers a stimulating reappraisal of our cluttered, tumultuous lives and encourages us to see life through a different lens.

Thomas F. Torrance's theology included a thoroughgoing, albeit implicit, ethic of reconciliation. It focused on the personalizing and humanizing mediation of Christ in all realms of life--including not only a supposed private dimension of human life but also the social, historical, and political structures of human society and even of the cosmos itself. This book builds upon that vision of a Christian ethic radically rooted in God's grace, which encompasses, sustains, and transforms the entire human and created order. A trinitarian-incarnational social ethic does not begin with our human causes, projects, and agendas, however noble they might be, but with witness to the reconciling person and work of Jesus Christ for us.

At a time when Old Testament and New Testament studies are considered to be two very different tasks, this major new work by Charles Scobie offers an approach to biblical theology meant to take in the entire sweep of divine revelation. Comprehensive in scope, this book covers every aspect of biblical theology. Chapters are devoted first to the nature and task of biblical theology and then to major themes within the biblical message -- God's order, God's servant, God's people, and God's way. Each section of the book also features an extensive system of helpful cross-references. Not only is Scobie's attempt to bridge the biblical testaments admirable, but he also takes great care to present scholarship that is at the same time informed by, and relevant to, the daily life and work of the church. The result is a book that is relevant to readers everywhere. Accessible to teachers, clergy, students, and general readers alike, this book will reinvigorate the study of the Bible as the unified word of God.

In Problem and Promise, William B. Whitney proposes a reading of Colin Gunton’s work that demonstrates how the doctrine of creation is a central feature of Gunton’s Trinitarian theology that influences theological discourse in both culture and ethics.