Knowing Creation

It is hard to think of an area of Christian theology that provides more scope for interdisciplinary conversation than the doctrine of creation. This doctrine not only invites reflection on an intellectual concept: it calls for contemplation of the endlessly complex, dynamic, and fascinating world that human being inhabit. But the possibilities for wide-ranging discussion are such that scholars sometimes end up talking past one another. Productive conversation requires mutual understanding of insights across disciplinary boundaries. Knowing Creation offers an essential resource for helping scholars from a range of fields to appreciate one another's concerns and perspectives. In so doing, it offers an important step forward in establishing a mutually-enriching dialogue that addresses, amongst others, the following key questions:

I. Introduction: Knowing Creation (editors)
II. Theological Perspectives
1. Christoph Schwöbel (Tubingen), Reading Creation: Creation as God's Text and the Gift of Human Literacy
2. John Webster (St Andrews), "The Introduction of Being Entirely": Creation Out of Nothing
3. Simon Oliver (Durham): Creation, Nature and Humanity
4. Randall Zachman (Notre Dame), Why Should Free Scientific Inquiry Matter to Faith?

III. Biblical and Historical Perspectives
5. Francis Watson (Durham), How did Genesis become a Problem? On the Hermeneutics of Natural Science
6. John Walton (Wheaton), Origins in Genesis? An Ancient Text in a Modern Scientific World
7. William Brown (Columbia Theological Seminary), 'Knowing Creation in the light of Job and Astrobiology'
8. Susan Eastman (Duke), Knowing and Being Known: Personal Knowledge and the Apostle Paul

IV. Philosophical Perspectives
9. C. Stephen Evans (Baylor), Natural Knowledge of God, Darwinian Evolution, and the Sensus Divinitatis
10. John Haldane (St Andrews), Christian Thought and Natural Science: Two Perspectives or Two Worlds?
11. Robert Koons (Texas), Ontological Escalation: A Neo-Aristotelian Alternative to 'Emergence' and Non-reductive Materialism
12. Marilyn McCord Adams (Rutgers), Sanctifying Material Creation

V. Scientific Perspectives
13. Denis Alexander (Cambridge), Creation, Providence and Evolution
14. Tom McLeish (Durham), The Science-and-Religion Delusion: Towards a Theology of Science
15. William Simpson (St Andrews), Knowing Nature: Beyond the False Dilemma of Dualism and Physicalism
16. Mark Harris (Edinburgh), "The Trees of the Field shall Clap their Hands" (Is. 55:12): Exploring Creation's Praise of the Creator