The current religion and science dialogue begs for greater clarity on the relation of God to nature. In God and Nature two scholars who embrace contemporary insights from science and religion explore the complexities of this debate. As the narrative unfolds, classical and contemporary thinkers are engaged as discussion partners in articulating a philosophical theology of nature. Conceptual pairs, in which two concepts play off of each other, provide the structure for each of the seven chapters, with usually the first concept being more scientific in character and the second more religious in tone. These pairs of concepts--from chronology and creation to creativity and creator--help to thematize and structure the progressing narrative. Within each chapter the two concepts are first investigated independently, then interdependently, and finally in relation to the divine. At the story's completion nature has emerged as alive with possibility that is as alluring as the actuality it evokes. Envisioned is a divine Creator who works in and through the possibility of creation to lure it into fuller manifestations via creative transformation.>

This volume is a continuation of our series exploring Saint Augustine's influence on later thought, this time bringing the fifth century bishop into dialogue with 19th century philosopher, theologian, social critic, and originator of Existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard. The connections, contrasts, and sometimes surprising similarities of their thought are uncovered and analyzed in topics such as exile and pilgrimage, time and restlessness, inwardness and the church, as well as suffering, evil, and humility. The implications of this analysis are profound and far-reaching for theology, ecclesiology, and ethics.

In the late 1830s and early 1840s Hans. L. Martensen (1808-1884) helped to introduce the thought of G.W.F. Hegel to the intellectual world of Copenhagen. Between Hegel and Kierkegaard offers the first English translations of three important early writings of Martensen in the philosophy of religion. These treatises evidence an original and critical interpretation of Hegel's thought from a speculative theological point of view. The heart of Martensen's philosophy of religion is the idea of freedom or personality grounded in its relation to the divine. These writings exercised an important and formative influence on the young Kierkegaard, Martensen's student, even though Kierkegaard later became a formidable opponent and critic of Martensen.

The current religion and science dialogue begs for greater clarity on the relation of God to nature. In "God and Nature" two scholars who embrace contemporary insights from science and religion explore the complexities of this debate.
As the narrative unfolds, classical and contemporary thinkers are engaged as discussion partners in articulating a philosophical theology of nature. Conceptual pairs, in which two concepts play off of each other, provide the structure for each of the seven chapters, with usually the first concept being more scientific in character and the second more religious in tone. These pairs of concepts--from chronology and creation to creativity and creator--help to thematize and structure the progressing narrative. Within each chapter the two concepts are first investigated independently, then interdependently, and finally in relation to the divine. At the story's completion nature has emerged as alive with possibility that is as alluring as the actuality it evokes. Envisioned is a divine Creator who works in and through the possibility of creation to lure it into fuller manifestations via creative transformation.

Soren Kierkegaard never shared the cultured public's enthusiasm for Hans Lassen Martensen, whom it identified as its chosen one. This volume examines the Kierkegaard-Martensen relationship, establishing ways in which the speculative theologian Martensen was a source for Kierkegaard's thought. Kierkegaard's relationship with Martensen was multidimensional and volatile. He functioned as Kierkegaard's personal acquaintance and occasional conversation partner, tutor, teacher, dissertation committee evaluator, representative of Golden Age Danish culture, book writing and selling competitor, fellow Lutheran and bishop. While the two never saw things eye-to-eye, and Kierkegaard's dislike for Martensen received expression in his writings, this spiteful ridicule and derision was directed toward one upon whom Kierkegaard was significantly dependent. Kierkegaard's intellectual life and work underwent extensive development during the two decades of his literary output from 1834 to his death in 1855. These developments can be better grasped by investigating developments that Martensen himself was going through. Martensen's career progressed from an early concern with philosophy of religion addressed to the public of the academy, to dogmatic theology addressed to the public of the church, to practical theology addressed to the public of society. The questions and issues preoccupying Martensen changed with these progressions, and these changes did not go unnoticed by Kierkegaard. The case is here argued that Kierkegaard followed Martensen's intellectual development very closely and that Martensen's shifting theological agenda in fact notably shaped the evolving agenda of Kierkegaard's own developing religious thought.