9 - Participation and Creaturely Action

Summary

Throughout this survey of participation, the closeness of participation to mediation is often in view. By mediation, here, we mean the way in which one thing acts in or through another, or is encountered in or through another. Here this is taken up in terms of how divine action is mediated in or through creatures. This allows us to explore the way in which participatory accounts inherently line up with 'non-contrastive' account of the relation of creatures to God, here especially in the relation of creaturely action with divine action. The indescribably great difference of creatures from God underlies the intimacy of divine presence, such that the presence and action of God do not exclude the presence and action of the creature. This is explored, among other ways, in relation to divine and creaturely freedom.