released 10/5/2023

“Approaching the world in terms of sharing and receiving should be the bedrock of a Christian understanding of reality, and of Christian doctrine.” So asserts theologian Andrew Davison on the first page of his book, Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Several months before his book was released, Davison gave a lecture in which he summarized key themes from his book. His lecture was titled “The Promise of Participation: Connecting All Things.” It is presented in this Feature in its entirety.

This lecture was originally presented at the 2019 Methexis Institute Conference, where the conference title was “Church & Academy: Deepening Our Dialogue.” It is featured here by permission.

28 minutes

PREVIEW

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More to hear . . .

Theologian and priest Andrew Davison believes that retrieving the historic doctrine of participation is vital to help Christians escape from the default philosophy of the age. In his book Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics, Davison undertakes a systematic treatment of the doctrine, approaching it from two angles: Creation (all things — whether the justice of man or the greenness of trees — find their being in God) and Redemption (God has saved us in order that we may become partakers in His very nature). In this interview about his book (from Volume 150), Davison says that the doctrine of participation means reckoning with the nature of being as an ongoing gift of God, and with the awareness that God’s transcendence does not mean God is distant from the world — “in Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”

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