Drama Of The Divine Economy

The theology of creation interconnected with virtually every aspect of early Christian thought, from Trinitarian doctrine to salvation to ethics. Paul M. Blowers provides an advanced introduction to the multiplex relation between Creator and creation as an object both of theological construction and religious devotion in the early church.

While revisiting the polemical dimension of Christian responses to Greco-Roman philosophical cosmology and heterodox Gnostic and Marcionite traditions on the origin, constitution, and destiny of the cosmos, Blowers focuses more substantially on the positive role of patristic theological interpretation of Genesis and other biblical creation texts in eliciting Christian perspectives on the multifaceted relation between Creator and creation.

Greek, Syriac, and Latin patristic commentators, Blowers argues, were ultimately motivated less by purely cosmological concerns than by the urge to depict creation as the enduring creative and redemptive strategy of the Trinity. The 'drama of the divine economy', which Blowers discerns in patristic theology and piety, unfolded how the Creator invested the 'end' of the world already in its beginning, and thereupon worked through the concrete actions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to realize a new creation.

Review: Blower has responded to the need for an overarching and articulate treatment of early Christian doctrines of creation. The book he has produced shows us that a sound knowledge of these doctrines is crucial to thinking about theology more generally, both ancient and modern. Thomas E. Hunt, Theology An eloquent epilogue ... recapitulates the main theme rounding off a fine book. ...

I do not think that it could be much better composed. Lionel Wickham, Journal of Ecclesiastical History