The World in the Shadow of God: An Introduction to Christian Natural Theology
Ebook
In The World in the Shadow of God, Ephraim Radner argues for a vigorous Christian natural theology and insists that such a theology must, of necessity, be performed poetically. The peculiar character of such a theology is found in its disclosing of the natural limits that indicate indirectly the impinging and more fundamental reality of the divine life. Natural theology represents the encounter between created reality and the "shadow" of God's creative and revelatory grace. However, the encounter is a morally demanding task for the Christian church if it is to be held accountable to the truth on which its life is based. The first portion of the book offers an extended critical essay on the nature of this sort of natural theology, while the second provides a developed set of examples through poems that display the natural world in light of the truths articulated in the Apostles' Creed. Those interested in the intersection of theology, literature, history, and the natural world will be challenged by this attempt to renew a basic element of Christian knowledge and culture.
"Never sweetly pious, always directly quarried from the
particularity of life, Ephraim Radner's poetry beautifully and
movingly reflects the straining, searching, God-desiring pathos of
natural theology. Shoes and suitcases speak as eloquently--and as
obliquely and uncertainly--as the reliable routines of the lowly
ant."
--R. R. Reno
Creighton University
"Radner's style in the introduction where he wrestles with the
nature of natural theology as that which 'beats us on the head' is
one of vast but lightly worn learning in service of spiritual
discipline, the life of somehow joyful penitence. The poetry that
follows is crafted and careful, full to bursting with Scriptural
imagery, gained from a wise American harvest of both the European
(one detects the modernism of Rilke, Celan, and Milosz) and global
(Burundi, Haiti) traditions where the world viewed up close in
God's holding presence is as cruel as it is colorful. It is as
though the wandering children of Israel camp on the northern
prairies to dream dreams of wild nature which has possessed the
familiar (cats, raccoons, and small children!) One might call this
post-Darwinian theology."
--Mark Elliott
University of St. Andrews, School of Divinity
Product Details
- Title : The World in the Shadow of God: An Introduction to Christian Natural Theology
- Author: Radner, Ephraim
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2010
- ISBN: 9781621893295
Ephraim Radner is Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto. He is the author of several volumes on ecclesiology and hermeneutics including The End of the Church (1998).