The Dialectics of Creation: Creation and the Creator in Edward Schillebeeckx and David Burrell

✍ Scribed by Martin G. Poulsom

• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 242
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book investigates the philosophical components of Christian faith in creation, by analyzing the distinction and the relation between creation and its Creator.The writings of Edward Schillebeeckx and David Burrell supply a terminology of distinction and relation that shapes the discourse, following in the footsteps of Aquinas. Poulsom elucidates the relational dialectic in the thought of Schillebeeckx as a way of thinking about the Creation and offers a helpful comparison with the thought of David Burrell. Relational dialectic is an organizing principle, not only of Schillebeeckx’s account of creation, but of his philosophical theology more generally. It can operate as a hermeneutic for his material on praxis and humanism, in a way that resolves some problems noted by other Schillebeeckx scholars. Poulsom's interpretation of Schillebeeckx enriches current approaches to this thinker and offers a significant contribution to thinking on the doctrine of Creation and issues surrounding the 'ontological distinction' which is of major concern in philosophical theology today.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations used
Preface
Introduction
The importance of creation
Creation and philosophical theology
A project for today
What their project is not
What their project is
Rules for discourse about creation
1 The Structure of Discourse
A task for contemporary philosophical theology
Opposing oppositions
Pairing diff erence and relation
Tending towards difference and sameness
Privileging difference
Difference and distinction as interchangeable
Privileging the negative
Relation and relationship as interchangeable
Directional sensitivity
Beyond difference and sameness
Between difference and sameness
Forming a community of argument
Functional complementarity and theological schools
2 Investigating Complementarity I: Common Ground
Non-contrastive accounts
Sources
Specifying misunderstandings of creation
Pantheism
Panentheism
Dualism
Emanationism
Creation is not an explanation
Creation is not just initiation
God is not a thing
The language of creation
Burrell on ‘the distinction’
Is ‘the distinction’ specifically Christian?
Distinction and difference
Directionality issues
Burrell on ‘the relation’
Relation and relationship
Directionality issues
Intentionality
Non-duality
Schillebeeckx on ‘the distinction’
Is ‘the distinction’ specifically Christian?
Distinction and Difference
Directionality issues
Schillebeeckx on ‘the relation’
Relation and relationship
The relationship of faith
3 Investigating Complementarity II: Complementary Emphases and Dialectic
Balancing ‘the distinction’ and ‘the relation’
Reading Burrell as prioritizing ‘the distinction’
Reading Schillebeeckx as prioritizing ‘the relation’
Other functionally complementary themes
The directionality of presence
Hope and optimism
Apophatic and kataphatic aspects
Moving towards dialectic
The dialectics of ‘the distinction’ and ‘the relation’
Burrell’s dialectic
Schillebeeckx’s dialectic
The characteristics of relational dialectic
Mediated immediacy
Continuity and change
4 Relational Dialectic in Schillebeeckx’s Philosophical Theology
Schillebeeckx’s method of correlation
Praxis
Praxis and practice as interchangeable
The relational dialectic of theory and practice
Praxis is more than practice
What comes first?
Praxis as a way of life
Schillebeeckx’s way of doing theology
The relational dialectic of mysticism and politics
Correlating mysticism and politics
The role of theology
Active and passive aspects
Praxis and ethics
Humanism
Christian and atheistic secular humanism – distinct and related
Critical affirmation: The value of atheistic secular humanism
Critical negativity: The inadequacy of atheistic secular humanism
The relational dialectic of finitude and contingency
Critical positivity: The inexhaustible surplus of Christian humanism
Schillebeeckx’s Sequela
Sequela Jesu
Sequela Aquinas
Sequela Irenaeus
5 Schillebeeckian Relational Dialectic I: Aquinas on Analogy
Aquinas and analogy
What analogy is not
What analogy is
Aquinas’s accounts of analogy
A proposed reading of Aquinas on analogy
Summa Theologiae Ia, 13, 5
Three terms or two?
13, 5 in context – What is the unum?
What is the middle term?
Analogical relations
Analogy in De Veritate and the Summa Theologiae
A Schillebeeckian reading
An analogia entis ?
Defending the reading
Hemming on Schillebeeckx
Schillebeeckx’s project
Schillebeeckx on analogy in Aquinas
6 Schillebeeckian Relational Dialectic II: Prospects for Philosophical Theology
Participation and creation in Aquinas
The possibilities of participation
Linking philosophy and theology
Linking beatitude and sanctification
Linking beatitude and sanctification with creation
Seamlessness in theological themes
Divine and human action
The underdetermination of creation
The underdetermination of God
Divine and human freedom
The relational dialectic of freedom and commitment
The causal connection and God’s knowledge
Making a better future and creating the world
Bibliography
Index