Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics

by Andrew Davison

Overview

Few ideas have excited greater interest among theologians in recent decades than the idea of 'participation'. In thinking about creation, it is the notion that everything comes from, and depends upon, God, inviting the language of sharing, or of an exemplar and its images; in thinking about redemption, it points to the restoration of that image, and is expressed in the language of communion with God and with the redeemed community. In this volume, Andrew Davison considers these themes in unprecedented breadth, investigating the fundamental character of participation as it can be applied to a wide range of theological topics. Exploring what it means to know, to love, to do good, and to live together well, he shows how these ideas animate a particular understanding of human life and how we relate to the world around us. His book offers the most comprehensive survey of participation to date, contributing to detailed discussions of these themes among academic theologians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108704045
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/18/2020
Pages:	435
Product dimensions:	9.06(w) x 5.91(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Andrew Davison is Starbridge Lecturer in Theology and Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and fellow in theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His previous books include The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians(2013), Why Sacraments? (2013), and Blessing (2014).

Table of Contents

Part I. Participation and Causation: 1. By and from God: efficient causation and God as the origin and agent of creation; 2. Causes and the Trinity: 'from Him and through Him and to Him are all things'; 3. Not out of God: God is not the material cause for creation; 4. After God's likeness: formal causation and creaturely characterfulness; 5. To and for God: final causation and God as the origin and goal of creation; Part II. The Language of Participation and Language as Participation: 6. Characterising participation; 7. Analogy: participation in being and language; Part III. Participation and the Theological Story: 8. Participation and christology; 9. Participation and creaturely action; 10. Evil as the failure of participation; 11. Redemption I: restoration and union; 12. Redemption II: justification, merit and transformation; Part IV. Participation and the Shape of Human Life: 13. Truth: knowing and the lucidity of things; 14. Beauty: praying and loving; 15. Goodness: ethics; Conclusion: participation, relation and common life.

Editorial Reviews

‘… especially admirable as a lucid, generous, thorough synthesis of recent and contemporary scholarly discussions of Thomist thought.’ Clare Carlisle, Times Literary Supplement

‘Davison … succeeds overall in offering a clear, theologically nuanced and philosophically tenable articulation of participation in God with all that it entails. Works of this kind can be opaque, but Davison’s monograph stands out since he writes for the specialist and the nonspecialist alike. Due to the breadth and depth of his treatment, this work ought to be consulted by anyone interested in systematic theology in general and metaphysics and philosophical theology more specifically.’ Thomas Haviland-Pabst, Theology and History

‘The text is written in a lucid and inviting style. The student of theology will find in ita offer a movingly coherent and often poetic account of a world ordered by and sharing in God. The scholar as well will find plenty of insights ... Few scholars have the gift of writing such a full treatment of a bedrock idea in a way that is both approachable and generativeof new critical engagement. Davison has this gift, and he has written such a book.’ Anthony Baker, Scottish Journal of Theology

‘Andrew Davison’s Participation in God is a magnificent gift to teachers and students of Christian theology, preachers of the faith, spiritual directors of the faithful, and specialists requiring a systematic theology of participation.’ Simon Oliver, Modern Theology

‘… Davison offers an impressive and wide-ranging study of the doctrine of participation, effectively demonstrating how it provides a metaphysical framework for theology that allows us to see the world as a gift from God, bearing some trace of his likeness, and creation as profoundly precious because of the one who gives it to us, and whose likeness it bears: God himself.’ Daria Spezzano, The Living Church

From the Publisher