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This work provides an overview of attempts to assess the current condition of the concept of creation order within reformational philosophy compared to other perspectives. Focusing on the natural and life sciences, and theology, this first volume of two examines the arguments for and against the beauty, coherence and order shown in the natural world being related to the will or nature of a Creator. It examines the decay of a Deist universe, and the idea of the pre-givenness of norms, laws and structures as challenged by evolutionary theory and social philosophy. It describes the different responses to the collapse of order: that given by Christian philosophy scholars who still argue for the idea of a pre-given world order, and that of other scholars who see this idea of stable creation order and/or natural law as redundant and in need of a thorough rethinking. It studies the particular role that reformational philosophy has played in the discussion. It shows how, ever since its inception, almost a century ago, the concepts of order and law (principle, structure) have been at the heart of this philosophy, and that one way to characterise this tradition is as a philosophy of creation order. Reformational philosophers have maintained the notion of law as ´holding´ for reality. This book discusses the questions that have arisen about the nature of such law: is it a religious or philosophical concept; does law just mean ´orderliness´? How does it relate to laws of nature? Have they always existed or do they ´emerge´ during the process of evolution?

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- Chapter 1: G. Glas & Jeroen de Ridder - Introduction

Part 1 The Concept of Creation Order

- Chapter 2: E. Stump - Natural Law, Metaphysics, and the Creator

- Chapter 3: D.F.M. Strauss - Is the Idea of "Creational Order" Still Fruitful?
- Chapter 4: H.G. Geertsema - Creation Order in the Light of Redemption

Part 2 Creation order, emergence, and the sciences

- Chapter 5: D.F.M Strauss - Christian Philosophy and Ma
thematics

- Chapter 6: M.D. Stafleu - Properties, propensities and challenges: Emergence in and from the natural world

- Chapter 7: A. Sikkema - Nuancing Emergentist Claims: Lessons from Physics

- Chapter 8: D. Alexander - Order and Emergence in Biological Evolution

- Chapter 9: J. van der Meer - Biology and the Philosophy of Emergence

- Chapter 10: G. Glas - Creation Order and the Sciences of the Person

- Chapter 11: L. Jaeger - Beyond Emergence? Learning from Dooyeweerdian Anthropology

Part 3 Creation order and the philosophy of religions

- Chapter 12: N. Ansell - For the Love of Wisdom
- Chapter 13: A. Verhoef - Theological Concerns about the Future of Creation Order

- Chapter 14: H. Schaeffer - A Contribution to the Concept of Creation Order from a Lutheran Perspective

- Chapter 15: J. van Kessel - Sophia as the foundation of creation order.
Chapter 16: A. Mosher - Out of the Ashes: A Case Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer´s Theology and the Orders of Creation

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