creator and creation in early Christian theology and piety /
First Statement of Responsibility
Paul M. Blowers
EDITION STATEMENT
Edition Statement
1st ed
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Oxford :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Oxford University Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
c2012
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xv, 424 p. ;
Dimensions
25 cm
SERIES
Series Title
Oxford early Christian studies
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [381]-403) and indexes
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
1. Introduction -- 2. Legacies of Greco-Roman cosmological wisdom -- 3. Legacies of Hellenistic-Jewish cosmological wisdom -- 4. The shaping of normative discourse about creator and creation in pre-Nicene Christianity -- 5. Creation in the mirror of scripture I: patristic approaches to the Genesis creation story -- 6. Toward a Christian theology of the beginning (and end) of the world -- 7. Creation in the mirror of scripture II: patristic approaches to the biblical witnesses beyond Genesis -- 8. Christ the creator and the creator spirit: the cosmic drama of the incarnation and the remaking of creation -- 9. Performing faith in the creator: the drama of the divine economy as the framework of devotional and ritual practices in the early church -- Epilogue: Drama of the divine economy
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The theology of creation interconnected with virtually every aspect of early Christian thought, from Trinitarian doctrine to salvation to ethics. Paul M. Blowers provides an advanced introduction to the multiplex relation between Creator and creation as an object both of theological construction and religious devotion in the early church. While revisiting the polemical dimension of Christian responses to Greco-Roman philosophical cosmology and heterodox Gnostic and Marcionite traditions on the origin, constitution, and destiny of the cosmos, Blowers focuses more substantially on the positive role of patristic theological interpretation of Genesis and other biblical creation texts in eliciting Christian perspectives on the multifaceted relation between Creator and creation. Greek, Syriac, and Latin patristic commentators, Blowers argues, were ultimately motivated less by purely cosmological concerns than by the urge to depict creation as the enduring creative and redemptive strategy of the Trinity. The 'drama of the divine economy', which Blowers discerns in patristic theology and piety, unfolded how the Creator invested the 'end' of the world already in its beginning, and thereupon worked through the concrete actions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to realize a new creation
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Creation-- History of doctrines-- Early church, ca. 30-600
Economy of God
Fathers of the church
Piety-- History of doctrines-- Early church, ca. 30-600