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Human Action Within Divine Creation

May 3- 6, 2015

The fourteenth Building Bridges Seminar, chaired by Professor Daniel A. Madigan, S.J., was held at Georgetown University in Qatar. The year’s theme was “Human Action Within Divine Creation.” On the first afternoon, public lectures by Mohsen Kadivar and Lucy Gardner provided an overview. On the second and third days of the seminar, seminar participants heard pairs of lectures that set the stage for detailed discussion of relevant scriptural texts during private sessions. Later lectures on “God’s creation and its goal” were given by Shabbir Akhtar and Richard Bauckham; on “the dignity and task of humankind within God’s creation” by Brandon Gallaher and Maria Dakake; and on “human action within the sovereignty of God” by Feras Hamza and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen. Excerpts from the proceedings of this seminar are available in PDF form, provided by Georgetown University Press.

The nature and purpose of human action within divine creation was an intriguing topic for the seminar to engage dialogically, as there are no clear lines of disagreement about it between the Christian and Muslim traditions writ large. Rather, within each tradition can be found a range of viewpoints and explanations for the relationship between divine and human agency. The seminar’s discussion of human action within divine creation raised many interrelated concerns. Participants took up questions such as, Why is there anything at all? Why isn’t there nothing? Why did God create human beings? Given divine sovereignty, what is the extent of human free will—if indeed it exists? What are the obligations and limits of stewardship or vicegerency?

Participants considered the notion of creation “out of nothing” over against other understandings of the eternity of matter; God as craftsman rather than creator; and God’s continuing creative action. In turn, this led to consideration of God’s immanence and transcendence—that is, the question of how is God present in or to creation; and of the goal or final purpose of God’s creative activity—both for humans and for the wider cosmos. As always, the purpose of the seminar was not to arrive at agreement, but rather to make sure that each has understood the other's concerns.

Participants