God in Creation: An Ecological Doctrine of Creation

This book marks the second step in the long-term systematic theological enterprise which Jürgen Moltmann began with his The Trinity and the Kingdom of God. In it, he ventures into areas which a generation ago would have been thought out of bounds to a respectable Protestant German theologian. As he himself points out, since the controversy between the Confessing Church and the German Christians in Nazi Germany, the doctrine of creation has ceased to be an independent theme in German Protestant theology. The alternatives were thought to be either 'natural theology', tainted as it was by the association of God with political events, or a 'theology of revelation' which sees Jesus Christ, as in the Barmen Declaration, as 'the one word of God'. However, new questions have now come to the fore. What is the meaning of faith in God the creator and this world as his creation in view of ongoing industrial exploitation and the irreversible destruction of nature? What has Christian faith to say to the nihilism which underlies the ecological crisis? What new values can be established, and on what basis? How do we understand the world as creation? Because the God in creation of whom the title speaks is God the Holy Spirit, a doctrine of the Holy Spirit also underlies the ongoing discussion of these issues. It contributes to making this one of the most fascinating books Professor Moltmann has ever written. "No one reading this series of Gifford Lectures can fail to be impressed by the quality of the presentation, the novelty and originality of the lecturer's treatment of so many central theological issues, and by the wide spectrum of his interests and his erudition, as by his sense of the importance of making any present-day discussion of creation relevant to this generation's high moral sensitivity to the issues of ecology" (Scottish Journal of Theology). "God in Creation is a theological masterpiece, perhaps the most important work by Moltmann since Theology of Hope" (International Review of Mission)