Creation and Transcendence: Theological Essays on the Divine Sublime

by Paul DeHart

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 2021

This is a creative scholarly argument revisiting the substance, understanding, and implications of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo for contemporary theology and philosophy.

Paul J. DeHart examines the special mode of divine transcendence (God's infinity) and investigates areas where accepting an infinite God presents challenging questions to Christian theology. He discusses what "saving knowledge" or "faith" would have to look like when confronted by such an unlimited conception of deity, and ponders how the doctrine of God's trinity can be brought into harmony with radical notions of transcendence, as well as ways the doctrine of creation itself is threatened when the radical otherness of the creator's mind is not maintained.

DeHart engages with a diverse range of figures: Jean-Luc Marion, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Kathryn Tanner, John Milbank and Rowan Williams, to illustrate his conviction. This volume deals with deep conceptual issues, indicating that creation ex nihilo remains a lively topic in contemporary theology.

Features

Examines the imposing notion of divine transcendence necessitated by the doctrine of creation from nothing
Engages with central questions concerning the understanding and significance of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo
Substantive contribution to a resurgent debate in contemporary Christian theology by one of the leading contemporary theologians

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Cultus Mentis: Accommodating the Endless Object
1. Can Pascal Forgive Descartes? God's Ambiguous Infinity
2. Absolute Dependence or Infinite Desire: Subjective Alignment with God
in Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard
3. “The Passage from Mind to Heart is So Long . . .” Kierkegaard's Repetition
and the Ontology of Agency
4. f(S)I/s :The Instance of Pattern in Kathryn Tanner's Theology

Part Two: Dogma and the Infinite God: Trinity, Christology, Grace
5. On the Contrary: Thomistic Second Thoughts on Eberhard Jüngel
6. John Milbank's Divine Comedy: Not Funny Enough

Part Three: Aquinas and God's Ideas: The Impossible Mind of the Creator
7: “Nothing in this book is true, but it's exactly how things are”
8. Eclipse of the Divine Mind: The Divine Ideas as Anti-Platonic Epistemology
9. The Creature Makes Itself: The Divine Ideas as Anti-Platonic Soteriology
10. Improvising the Paradigms: The Divine Ideas as Anti-Platonic Ontology

Bibliography
Index

Praise for Creation and Transcendence

The author offers a scintillating resume of contemporary theology from the arresting viewpoint of free creation, showing how some thinkers have failed to take that obvious starting point, as well as those who have illuminated us thereby. DeHart turns a profound study into an exciting read.

The order of the world to God is a basic theme of Christian vocation and so of theology. Getting it wrong distorts our self-understanding and service. Drawing superb and sometimes startling lessons from Aquinas, Kierkegaard, and others, Paul DeHart gets it right. This book is smart, learned, and wise.

Product Details

• Title: Creation and Transcendence: Theological Essays on the Divine Sublime
• Author: Paul DeHart
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780567698735, 9780567698742, 0567698742, 0567698734
• Resource ID: LLS:9780567698735
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-12T04:18:40Z

About Paul DeHart

Paul J. DeHart is Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, USA. Professor DeHart’s research interests center on the methods and intellectual engagements of Christian theology, especially its trajectories from the Reformation through the Enlightenment, the nineteenth century, and the contemporary period. He also has special interests in Biblical interpretation in theology, and in the conceptual problems attendant upon the doctrine of God, divine action in the world, and the Trinity. His latest book is Beyond the Necessary God: Trinitarian Faith and Philosophy in the Thought of Eberhard Jüngel (Oxford/AAR, 1999). He is currently completing a manuscript tentatively entitled “The Yale School: A Study in the Origin and Future of Postliberal Theology”. Professor DeHart teaches in the areas of systematic theology and historical theology, including courses on Luther, Calvin, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Postliberalism, Recent Trinitarian Thought, God in the Western Tradition, and surveys of Nineteenth Century Theology and Twentieth Century Theology.