The Future of Creation Order

This book investigates humanities, social sciences and politics from the perspective of the concept of creation order. It is the second volume in a series that provides a unique and topical overview of attempts to assess the current health of the concept of creation order within Reformational philosophy when it is compared with other perspectives. Divided into a section on fundamental reflections and a section on normative practices, it discusses issues such as redemption, beauty, nature, love, justice, morality, and ethics. It concludes with discussions on a practice-based theory to explain religion in international relations and a normative model for the practice of cooperation in development. 

This series reflects the role that the branch of Christian philosophy called ‘Reformational’ philosophy plays in the discussion on the status of laws of nature. Ever since its inception, almost a century ago, the concepts of order and law (principle, structure) have beenat the heart of this philosophy. One way to characterise this tradition is as a philosophy of creation order. Firmly rejecting both scholastic metaphysics and Deism, Reformational philosophers have maintained the notion of law as ‘holding’ for reality. Questions 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?

• Christian ethics
• Political philosophy
• natural law
• social theory
• Reformational philosophy
• Christian worldview
• Professional practices
• Creation order
• Justice

• Faculty of Humanities,Department of Philosophy, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Govert J. Buijs

• Faculty of Religion and Theology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Annette K. Mosher

Govert Buijs PhD holds the Kuyper Chair for political philosophy in relation to religion at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, VU University, Amsterdam. Next to this he holds the Goldschmeding Research Chair on 'economics and civil society'. At the Erasmus University Rotterdam he lectures in Christian Philosophy. He studied political science, philosophy and theology at various institution in the Netherlands and Canada. His main interests are religion in the public square, religion in relation to civil society and the relation between morality and economics. In 2003 he won the Savornin Lohman Price for political and social theory in relation to Christianity.  He is co-founder of Èthos, a recently founded Dutch platform for research and public debate on societal developments.

Annette Mosher PhD is currently employed at VU University Amsterdam as Assistant Professor of Ethics within the Faculty of Theology where she has served since 2005.  With fourteen years experience in the field of education, Annette specializes in the interaction of nature religions with environmental ethics, as well as religion and issues of justice, and ecofeminism.

Policies and ethics