Participating in God: Creation and Trinity (Theology and the Sciences)

In this exciting work Samuel Powell offers a new constructive and systematic vision of creation by interpreting it in terms of contemporary science and trinitarian theology. Powells work unfolds in three stages building on the multiple ways the doctrine of creation actually functions for Christians. He first analyzes its regulative dimension. Even in all the multiplicity of historical Christianity he shows the doctrine commits Christians to a particular set of normative beliefs about the world and Gods relation to it. Second Powell builds on the doctrines hermeneutical potential. It allows Christians both to interpret the meaning of creation in terms of other prevalent philosophical religious or scientific ideas and also to interpret the world as disclosed by scientific theory in theological terms. In the heart of his book Powell correlates creaturely characteristics with their participation in God through the trinitarian persons. Finally in light of his findings Powell drives home the often ignored ethical dimension of the doctrine especially in relation to the environment our consumerist lifestyle and eschatology.Powells bold proposal harvests from two of the most fruitful fields of recent theology - trinitarian theory and religion-and-science - and crafts a creative new vision of how we and all creation participate in the life and work of the triune God.