2006 CONFERENCE REPORT
CREATION AND THE ABRAHAMIC FAITHS
Dalton Ellis Hall, University of Manchester , September 11-13 2006
AN IMPRESSION by Paul Beetham
We began with the texts that we share. Rev. Dr. David Wilkinson introduced us to the Old Testament creation narratives and explained that as an astrophysicist as well as a theologian he would of course be working to the astrophysicist’s level of accuracy, an order of magnitude. He led us into the creation accounts in Genesis, the wisdom literature and the prophets with reference to present day revelation from amongst other things the Hubble deep space images. The texts speak of God as the creator without peer or competitor but pointed out that the texts are not concerned with creation in ex nihilo but with God creating order from chaos. The Jewish concern with a theology of creation from nothing dates from the fourth century C.E. with the influence of Greek culture and the Macabees. He offered us five views of God, as a sustainer of order, as a sustainer of grace, as the source of extravagant diversity, as a seeker of relationship and as caught up in worship. This was a broad overview of the texts rather than a detailed exegesis, presented with David’s usual flair and skilled communication.
The following morning Professor Keith Ward led us into the dialectic of the theologians God and the scientists God. He presented us with the classical deist’s view of God with all philosophical tradition and rigour. This is a God beyond time and remote but not one of relationship and response. For this he turned to the changeable, post-Hegelian theist God. This is a God who is responsive and expresses his nature in a temporal way. God is no longer timeless but desires relationship with finite responsible agents. He concluded by having his cake and eating it. If we drop the doctrine of the simplicity of God, God is necessary and contingent, creative as well as creator.
Dr. Marwil Izzi Dien brought us an Islamic perspective in his presentation “Towards an Islamic Sustainable Development”. Creation is not the central theological element in Islam. It is the oneness of God and the revealed word of God in Mohammed his prophet. Sharing a common route with Judaism Islam is a continuation routed in nomadic life, with the desert sense of life and faith being related. The text of the Koran is not to be interpreted but there is dialectic between the text and daily life. The main concern of Islam is the exploration of that dialectic. It is the question of how to live daily life in this dialectic. He described creation as a symphony in which all creatures have dignity and relationality. The responsibility is to the whole of creation including that which is yet to come.
Rabbi Brian Fox at short notice shared an outstanding overview of Jewish thinking and development. Quoting the Psalms he described the Jews as not analysing creation but celebrating it. He discussed the poetic truth of scripture describing Genesis as being about God and human beings, their destinies and relationship. He shared with us an account of Jewish thought influenced by Plato and Aristotle and the influences that have been incorporated from Hellenistic times to the present day. This was a very personal account of a continuing tradition and its journey through history in relation to God.
The short papers broadened our discussion providing a range of topics from whether God is redundant in a universe with no special time or boundaries and a discussion on the problem of evil and the place of superstition. We had a consideration of the role of the artist in creation and a paper relating physicist’s models of the universe to the descriptions found in the Koran.
Our conference was completed by Professor David Knight, describing the flow and development of ideas and knowledge which lay behind the publication of Darwin ’s theory of evolution. The theory was not the sudden revelation that it is often thought to have been but part of a development of thought and understanding over several centuries. Professor Knight emphasised the importance of history in our understanding of ideas. David supported his thesis with some beautifully preserved original editions of nineteenth century books that still influence us far more than we imagine.
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