The Doctrine of Creation: A Constructive Kuyperian Approach
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Apart from the doctrine of God, no doctrine is as comprehensive as that of creation. It is woven throughout the entire fabric of Christian theology. It goes to the deepest roots of reality and leaves no area of life untouched. Across the centuries, however, the doctrine of creation has often been eclipsed or threatened by various forms of gnosticism. Yet if Christians are to rise to current challenges related to public theology and ethics, we must regain a robust, biblical doctrine of creation.
According to Bruce Ashford and Craig Bartholomew, one of the best sources for outfitting this recovery is Dutch neo-Calvinism. Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and their successors set forth a substantial doctrine of creation’s goodness, but recent theological advances in this tradition have been limited. Now in The Doctrine of Creation Ashford and Bartholomew develop the Kuyperian tradition’s rich resources on creation for systematic theology and the life of the church today.
In addition to tracing historical treatments of the doctrine, the authors explore intertwined theological themes such as the omnipotence of God, human vocation, and providence. They draw from diverse streams of Christian thought while remaining rooted in the Kuyperian tradition, with a sustained focus on doing theology in deep engagement with Scripture.
Approaching the world as God’s creation changes everything. Thus The Doctrine of Creation concludes with implications for current issues, including those related to philosophy, science, the self, and human dignity. This exegetically grounded constructive theology contributes to renewed appreciation for and application of the doctrine of creation—which is ultimately a doctrine of profound hope.
- Explores related themes including the omnipotence of God, human vocation, and providence
- Traces the historical treatments of the doctrine
- Addresses the implications for current issues, including those related to philosophy, science, the self, and human dignity
- Preface
- Introduction
- I/ We Believe. The Doctrine of Creation as an Article of Faith
- The Travails and Glories of Creation, Part 1
- The Travails and Glories of Creation, Part 2
- God the Father Almighty
- Laying the Foundations: The Furnishing of Creation
- Place, Plants, Animals, Humans, and Creation
- The Heavenly Realm
- Sabbath, Fall, and Misdirection
- Creation and Culture
- Creatio Continua: Providence and History
- Creation, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the New Creation
- Creation and . . .
Top Highlights
“Instead, it is to say that human beings cannot do anything to merit saving favor with God” (Page 235)
“Enlightenment and the widespread atheism of the post-Enlightenment era” (Page 17)
“we appropriate by faith and thus confess rather than reason toward” (Page 4)
“a role of theology is to help Christians read their Bibles better” (Page x)
“reminder that Yahweh is not part of nature but transcends it” (Page 116)
If theology is the study of God and all other things in relation to God, then the focus of a doctrine of creation is ‘all other things.’ This is a tall order and one reason why it is difficult to come up with a list of masterpieces on the subject. This book ranges widely, covering topics from food to philosophy, but always in relation to the goodness of God, the created order, and its implications for humanity. The authors show convincingly that there is nothing in the world to which God the Creator cannot rightly declare, ‘Mine, and for my glory!’
—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
This book is dazzling in its sources and range, and it is rigorous and provocative in its judgments. Grounded in a solidly Reformed outlook derived primarily from Barth and Kuyper, the authors evaluate the doctrine of creation and related realities such as sin, providence, and eschatology with attention to biblical texts and scholarship, to the whole of the theological tradition, and to philosophy from Plato to the French phenomenologists. They defend Christian faith in creation with power and panache.
—Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary
Craig G. Bartholomew is director of the Kirby Laing Centre for Christian Ethics at Tyndale House, Cambridge, England. He has written and edited numerous books, including Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition, Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics, Beyond the Modern Age (with Bob Goudzwaard), The Drama of Scripture (with Michael Goheen), and a commentary on Ecclesiastes.
Bruce Riley Ashford is provost and professor of theology and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the coauthor of The Gospel of Our King and the author of Letters to an American Christian, Every Square Inch, One Nation Under God, and Theology and Practice of Mission.