Act & Being

[J. Barrett]

Greetings all - I recently finished Act & Being and was very pleased
with it. I know that Gunton wasn't the only person who looked at the
attributes trinitarianly, but I'm trying to figure out if anyone has
since developed a fuller version of his ideas/concerns. Also, I would
be interested in hearing people's initial reactions to this work.
Thanks for your help.

[lbrisbois]

Greetings! I am just finishing Act and Being, and came across a
relevant quote from Stanley Hauerwas (who is discussing Karl Barth and
Nicholas Wolterstorff):

"God is not part of the metaphysical furniture of the universe ... I'm
trying to show that if you could successfully show that that God must
exist then you would have evidence that the Christian God does not
exist. Because the Christian God is the God who created gratuitously.
So there can be no necessary relationship between creation and God
from the Christian point of view."

(http://www.crosscurrents.org/Hauerwasspring2002.htm)

This passage made me think of Gunton's arguments, especially as they
might relate to the debate over Intelligent Design among some
Christians. I think Hauerwas is saying that if there's a "necessary"
relationship then gnostic attempts at climbing some metaphysical
ladder would be justified.

Doesn't the insistence on ID among some Evangelicals resemble the
"projecting" theology Gunton laments in figures like Pseudo-Dionysius
and Aquinas?

As a Christian, I'm not keen on ID as science, but I know that
Christians can't simply tolerate a radical version of Darwinism like
Dawkins'. Gunton, in light of Hauerwas' remarks, helps me see a third
way that's Bibically sound and intellectually coherent.

On Dec 7 2008, 12:35 am, "J. Barrett" <Jordan.Barr...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Jeremy Ive]

For a trinitarian approach to the question of creation and evolution ('and'
not 'versus'), I should like to give a plug for a book of a friend of mine,
Dr Christopher Southgate, The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution and the
Problem of Evil (Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
Chris draws on Gunton and others to give a very thoughtful and creative
study of this question from a trinitarian perspective.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Ive


Revd Dr Jeremy G.A. Ive
Tel: +44 (0)1892 836653
http://jgaive.wordpress.com/

[sel...@bigpond.net.au]

I have just finished Act and Being and found it a delight. I am currently
writing a PhD on the Trinitarian controversy in England at the turn of the
117 and 18C. Gunton gives the ultimate foil for Samuel Clarke's a priori
deduction of the attributes of God. God does not have attributes like other
things, he is an attribute!

Peter Sellick

-----Original Message-----
From: guntonr...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:guntonr...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of lbrisbois
Sent: Thursday, 15 January 2009 2:21 AM
To: guntonresearch
Subject: Re: Act & Being