Creation and the God of Abraham

286 pp, 1 table, hb, in English.

• Provides an in-depth accessible treatment of the idea of creation
• Connects with the contemporary scientific accounts of origins, enabling readers to identify the distinction between theological and scientific approaches and appreciate the implications of these differences
  Brings together the teaching which is central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
• providing the reader with an overview of the approaches to creation within these faiths

Creatio ex nihilo is a foundational doctrine in the Abrahamic faiths. It states that God created the world freely out of nothing - from no pre-existent matter, space or time. This teaching is central to classical accounts of divine action, free will, grace, theodicy, religious language, intercessory prayer and questions of divine temporality and as such, the foundation of a scriptural God but also the transcendent Creator of all that is. This edited collection explores how we might now recover a place for this doctrine, and with it, a consistent defence of the God of Abraham in philosophical, scientific, and theological terms. The contributions span the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and cover a wide range of sources, including historical, philosophical, scientific and theological. As such, the book develops these perspectives to reveal the relevance of this idea within the modern world.

Table of Contents
Preface / David D. Burrell and Janet M. Soskice
Introduction / Carlo Cogliati
  1. Creation ex nihilo: early history / Ernan McMullin
  2. Creatio ex nihilo: its Jewish and Christian foundations / Janet M. Soskice
  3. The act of creation with its theological consequences / David D. Burrell
  4. Scotistic metaphysics and creation ex nihilo / Alexander Broadie
  5. Creation and the context of theology and science in Maimonides and Crescas / Dan Davies
  6. Creation: Avicenna's metaphysical account / Rahim Acar
  7. Four conceptions of creatio ex nihilo and the compatibility question / Pirooz Fatoorchi
  8. Will, necessity, and creation as monistic theophany in the Islamic philosophical tradition / Ibrahim Kalim
  9. Trinity, motion and creation ex nihilo / Simon Oliver
10. The big bang, quantum cosmology and creatio ex nihilo / William R. Stoeger
11. What is written into creation? / Simon Conway Morris
12. Creatio ex nihilo and dual causality / James R. Pambrun
13. God and creatures acting: the idea of double agency / Thomas F. Tracy
14. Thomas Aquinas on knowing and coming to know: the Beatific vision and learning from contingency / Eugene F. Rogers