How God Acts: Creation, Redemption, and Special Divine Action

by Denis Edwards (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800697006
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	01/27/2010
Series:	Theology and the Sciences
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Denis Edwards is a professorial fellow in theology at Australian Catholic University (ACU), Adelaide campus. He is a member of ACU's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, a fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, and a member of the International Methodist-Roman Catholic Commission. His most recent book is Partaking of God: Trinity, Evolution and Ecology (2014).

Table of Contents

Foreword William R. Stoeger, S.J. ix

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Characteristics of the Universe Revealed by the Sciences 1

A Universe That Evolves at All Levels 2

A Universe Constituted by Patterns of Relationship 5

A Universe Where Natural Processes Have Their Own Integrity 7

A Directional Universe 8

The Costs of Evolution 11

Chapter 2 Divine Action in the Christ-Event 15

Jesus' Vision of Divine Action: The Reign of God 15

Parables of Divine Action 16

Healing 18

The Open Table 20

The Community of Disciples 21

Divine Action for Jesus 24

Divine Action in the Light of the Whole Christ-Event 25

God Who Lovingly Waits upon Creation 26

The Vulnerability of Divine Love 30

Chapter 3 Creation as Divine Self-Bestowal 35

The Specific and Historical Character of Divine Acts 36

Creation as the Self-Bestowal of God 39

Enabling and Empowering Evolutionary Emergence 43

Noninterventionist Divine Action 45

Enabling Creaturely Autonomy to Flourish 47

Divine Action That Accepts the Limits of Creaturely Processes 50

Creating through Chance and Lawfulness 52

Chapter 4 Special Divine Acts 57

Special Acts in the Providential Guidance of Creation 58

Approaches to Special Divine Acts 59

Divine Action through Secondary Causes 62

God's Special Acts in Evolutionary Emergence 64

The Dynamism and the Creaturely Limits of Special Divine Acts 65

Special Divine Acts in the Life of Grace 66

Experiences of the Holy Spirit 67

Personal Providence 68

Disruptive Grace 71

Special Divine Acts in the History of Salvation 72

Mediation by Created Realities 72

Sacramental Structure of Special Divine Acts 74

Conclusion 75

Chapter 5 Miracles and the Laws of Nature 77

The Miracles of Jesus 78

Aquinas on the Dignity of Secondary Causes 80

The Laws of Nature 84

A Theological Approach 87

Chapter 6 The Divine Act of Resurrection 91

Resurrection: A Free Act of God from within Creation

That Gives Creation Its Deepest Meaning 92

Central Expression of God's Act of Self-Bestowal 92

Evolutionary Christology 94

Sacrament of Salvation 95

Resurrection as Ontological Transformation 96

Resurrection Expressed in Creation through Secondary Causes 99

Experience of the Risen Christ in the Christian Community Today 101

The Easter Appearances 102

The Eschatological Transformation of Creation 104

Chapter 7 God's Redeeming Act: Deifying Transformation 107

Redemption and Deification through Incarnation: Athanasius 109

The God-Creation Relationship 109

The Central Place of Christ's Death and Resurrection 113

Deification in Christ 114

Exploring a Theology of Redemption as Deifying Transformation 118

The Deifying Transformation of Human Beings 119

The Deifying Transformation of the Material Universe 121

The Deifying Transformation of the Biological World 124

A Participatory Theology of Redemption 126

Chapter 8 God's Redeeming Act: Evolution, Original Sin, and the Lamb of God 129

The Scapegoat Mechanism 129

Evolutionary Science on Human Emergence 131

Original Grace and Original Sin in Evolutionary History 134

The End of Scapegoating and the Beginning of New Creation 138

Chapter 9 Final Fulfillment: The Deifying Transformation of Creation 143

We Hope for What We Do Not See: God as Absolute Future 144

Hope for the Whole Creation in the New Testament: Romans 8:18-25 146

Hope for the Universe in Patristic Tradition: Maximus the Confessor 150

The Deification of the Universe: Karl Rahner 152

The Deification of Matter 153

Radical Transformation 155

Real Continuity 157

Hope for the Animals 159

Chapter 10 Prayers of Intercession 167

God Wants Our Participation 168

Sharing What Matters with the Beloved 170

Entrusting Ourselves to God 173

Prayer as Desire for God 175

Conclusion 178

Notes 181

Index 203