Title: How God acts : creation, redemption, and special divine action /
Authors: Edwards, Denis, 1943-
Publisher: Fortress Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Providence and government of God Christianity
Abstract: "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." -- Publisher's description.
Contents: Foreword / by William R. Stoeger -- Introduction -- Characteristics of the universe revealed by the sciences -- A universe that evolves at all levels -- A universe constituted by patterns of relationship -- A universe where natural processes have their own integrity -- A directional universe -- The cost of evolution -- Divine action in the Christ-event -- Jesus' vision of divine action : the reign of God -- Parables of divine action -- Healing -- The open table -- The community of disciples -- Divine action for Jesus -- Divine action in the light of the whole Christ-event -- God who lovingly waits upon creation -- The vulnerability of divine love -- Creation as divine self-bestowal -- The specific and historical character of divine acts -- Creation as the self-bestowal of God -- Enabling and empowering evolutionary emergence -- Noninterventionist divine action -- Enabling creaturely autonomy to flourish -- Divine action that accepts the limits of creaturely processes.