God and Creation in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth

God's simplicity and perfection shapes both God's distinctive relation to creation and how theologians properly acknowledge this distinctiveness in thought.

Tyler R. Wittman (Author)

9781108470674, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 November 2018

328 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.61 kg

'The volume is an ambitious and demanding read that is full of rich insights into the theological method of its interlocutors. Wittman demonstrates a sensitivity to, and awareness of, the issues in the landscape of Aquinas and Barth scholarship, yet charts his own course by avoiding the temptation to become unduly entangled in them.' Charles C. Helmer, International Journal of Systematic Theology

The legacies of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth remain influential for contemporary theologians, who have increasingly put them into conversation on debated questions over analogy and the knowledge of God. However, little explicit dialogue has occurred between their theologies of God. This book offers one of the first extended analyzes of this fundamental issue, asking how each theologian seeks to confess in fact and in thought God's qualitative distinctiveness in relation to creation. Wittman first examines how they understand the correspondence and distinction between God's being and external acts within an overarching concern to avoid idolatry. Second, he analyzes the kind of relation God bears to creation that follows from these respective understandings. Despite many common goals, Aquinas and Barth ultimately differ on the subject matter of theological reason with consequences for their ability to uphold God's distinctiveness consistently. These mutually informative issues offer some important lessons for contemporary theology.

Introduction
1. Confessing that God is God: the relation between theology and economy
Part I. God's Being and Activity According to Thomas Aquinas: 2. Aquinas on God's being and activity
3. Aquinas on the creative act and God's relation to creation
Part II. God's Being in Act According to Karl Barth: 4. Barth on God's being in act
5. God's self-correspondence and Barth's critique of nominalism
6. Barth on the electing God's relation to creation
Conclusion
7. Confessing God as God
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]