Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature

by Sigurd Bergmann

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2005

Overview

In view of the destruction of the sources of life, ecology is no longer a marginal issue. In Creation Set Free, Sigurd Bergmann creatively rethinks the discipline of theology in light of the global environmental crisis. He opens up an extraordinary dialogue between previous ecological theologies and church father Gregory of Nazianzus. Through the neglected topics of sociality, motion, suffering, and the Spirit, Bergmann brings to light Gregory’s thought on the liberation of creation. Finally, Bergmann connects ecological issues and patristic theology with contemporary liberation theology, concerned throughout to reaffirm the cosmos as something involved in redemption rather than merely a stage for the human salvific drama. An astonishingly wide-ranging study, Creation Set Free should interest all those concerned with the history of theology and the future of the earth. Looking at theology through the lens of a postmodern culture, this volume is an essential and highly significant work.

Key Features

• Foreword by Jürgen Moltmann
• Includes bibliographical references and indexes

Contents

Top Highlights

“A local theology also enduringly influences its attendant cultural situation. Culture and tradition thus mutually shape and influence one another, though they can certainly mutually change one another as well.” (Page 332)

“Ecotheology is the experiential and historic-systematically revisioning of theology in general in the horizon of God’s mystery of creation and salvation.” (Page xiv)

“redemption that encompasses the entire cosmos rather than merely human salvation. He is” (Page viii)

“fundamental difference between the scientific and aesthetic observation of nature” (Page 35)

“overcome the ecological destruction generated by that crisis” (Page 1)

Endorsements

Our earth is ‘groaning’ more than ever. This brilliant volume settles itself within contemporary ecological issues and establishes an integral connection to the theology of Gregory of Nazianzen (d. 390). Bergmann shows how we can take up the problems through this grand old resource with stunning results because his methods are sound. Liberation in Christ is for more than humans.

—Frederick W. Norris, Emmanuel School of Religion

Bergmann’s book demonstrates that interdisciplinary dialogue does not require blurring the distinctiveness of a theological approach. Rather, a clear emphasis on a theological understanding of nature, letting the understanding of nature be informed by its relationship to God, opens up promising avenues for dialogue with disciplines outside theology.

—Christoph Schwöbel, University of Tübingen

Product Details

• Title: Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature
• Author: Sigurd Bergmann
• Series: Sacra Doctrina: Christian Theology for a Postmodern Age
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2005
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint; Human ecology › Religious aspects--Christianity; Liberation theology
• ISBNs: 9780802822246, 080282224X
• Resource ID: LLS:CREATIONFREE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:59:45Z

About Sigurd Bergmann

Sigurd Bergmann is Professor of Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. The author and editor of numerous books, he is also a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences and an ordained minister in the Church of Sweden.