ABSTRACT
CONSIDERATION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE human in the context of creationleaves as yet unexplored how the divine and the human interact in contemporary life. It would be quite possible to follow a (deist) line of thought, according to which God created the world, but then ‘let it be’ to such an extent that there is no ongoing interaction between God and the created order. This deist view could be held to be closer to atheism than it would care to admit. Theism, by contrast, wrestles with the harder question of how God remains actively involved with the world, even when there appears to be much evidence to the contrary.This branch of Christian theology has often been known as the ‘doctrine of providence’. ‘Providence’ is then an extension of the doctrine of creation in the sense that God is thought to be continuing to be involved in the same way that God let creation be.
