Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T11:46:16.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Creation and Providence

from Part I - Doctrines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
Simon Oliver
Edited by
Michael Allen
Michael Allen
Affiliation:
Reformed Theological Seminary, Florida
Get access

Summary

According to scripture and the historic Christian creeds, God is almighty and the creator of all things, visible and invisible. This entails that the world is neither a brute fact nor without origin, meaning, and purpose. Rather, it is the work of a divine agency that creates and provides for creatures and orders them to their proper ends. That divine agency is not part of the world but is the transcendent yet immanent and continual source of the world’s existence. These claims arise from wonder and reflection on the contingency, fragility, beauty, and rational order of the world, contemplation of scripture, and the discernment of God’s revelation in and through creation. The Christian theology of creation and providence, having its roots in the Hebrew scriptures and ancient philosophy, was developed in relation to the Trinitarian doctrine of God, the incarnation of Christ, and the hope of redemption. It has been articulated in creative and critical conversation with many other traditions of enquiry into the origin, workings, and purpose of the cosmos, from ancient pagan creation myths to the modern natural sciences.

Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine , pp. 19 - 36
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Anderson, Gary, and Bockmuehl, Markus, eds. (2018), Creation Ex Nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press).Google Scholar
Aquinas, Thomas (2012), Summa Theologiae (Volume 13 Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas; trans. Laurence Shapcote; Lander, WY: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine), 1a.44–46.Google Scholar
Barth, Karl (2004), Church Dogmatics, III.1. (ed. Bromiley, G. W. and Torrance, T. F.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark), §§ 40–42.Google Scholar
Fergusson, David (2018), The Providence of God: A Polyphonic Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Peter (2015), The Territories of Science and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, David Bentley (2017), ‘God, Creation, and Evil: The Moral Meaning of Creatio ex Nihilo’. In The Hidden and the Manifest: Essays in Theology and Metaphysics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 338–350.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Willis (2008), Ecologies of Grace: Environmental Ethics and Christian Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levering, Matthew (2017), Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures, and the Wise and Good Creator (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic).Google Scholar
McFarland, Ian (2014), From Nothing: A Theology of Creation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox).Google Scholar
Murphy, Francesca Aran, and Ziegler, Philip, eds. (2009), The Providence of God (London: T&T Clark).Google Scholar
Oliver, Simon (2017), Creation: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Oord, Thomas J., ed. (2015), Theologies of Creation: Creatio Ex Nihilo and Its New Rivals (New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Tanner, Kathryn (2005), God and Creation in Christian Theology: Tyranny or Empowerment? (Minneapolis: Fortress).Google Scholar
Webster, John (2013), ‘“Love Is Also a Lover of Life”: Creation Ex Nihilo and Creaturely Goodness’, Modern Theology 29, no. 2, 156–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Rowan (2018), Christ the Heart of Creation (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×