Christian Understandings of Creation: The Historical Trajectory

摘要

Throughout his career, Denis Edwards (1943-2019) was a theologian's theologian-a master of synthesis-whose analyses of historical and contemporary theologies of creation offer valuable resources to those working in the subfields of theology and science and of ecotheology. His penultimate book provides theologians with fresh, lucid profiles of fourteen sources for theological reflection on creation. Using a "hermeneutics of critical retrieval" and "critical appreciation" (ⅷ), Edwards aims primarily to surface positive aspects of the tradition. Critique is rare in the text. And while it operates more as guidebook than as constructive theological work, his exploration of the "rich diversity" (ⅶ) of biblical, Patristic, Medieval, Reformation, and contemporary texts lifts up key resources for thinking theologically about creation in light of modern science and the ecological crisis. Each chapter concludes with a summary list of "trajectories" for further reflection.