In an introductory way, and in the context of ‘embracing subjectivity,’ the claims of being ‘spiritual but not religious’ (and of its ‘pop-culture pantheism’ version) are examined in relation to their associated rejection of ‘doctrinal religion’. Both the Origenist sense of ‘seeming history’ in scripture and Vladimir Lossky’s sense of the meaning of ‘mystical theology’ are seen as relevant to exploring the importance of this rejection of doctrinal religion, especially in relation to Lossky’s focus on the way in which theology should not be seen as abstract and discursive but as essentially contemplative in nature. The relevance of divine action understandings to the concept of religious pluralism is outlined, and five theses are set out that link a naturalistic perspective on this action with the revelatory experience that is the basis of any religious tradition.

General conclusion summarizes the entire project, restating its principal objectives and achievements. (1) It emphasizes that evolution does not oppose or contradict the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophical and theological view of reality. (2) It stresses the importance of the constructive proposal of metaphysics of evolutionary transitions, which takes into account the interplay of chance and teleological order in speciation. (3) It refers to the importance of the distinction between creation and divine governance of the universe, where the evolutionary origin of the new living beings belongs to the latter category and not to the former. (4) Finally, it emphasizes the relevance of Aquinass view of divine action as applied to the notion of divine concurrence in evolutionary transitions. All these aspects contribute to the contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic model of theistic evolution developed in the volume. The research presented in it proves that, despite a certain dose of skepticism toward classical philosophy and theology, the longstanding legacy of the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition remains vigorous and ready to enter a vivid and fruitful conversation with contemporary philosophy and science.

Chapter seven addresses the difficulty of the theological interpretation of evolutionary biology in delineating a precise account of the concurrence of divine and contingent causes engaged in speciation. Invoking Aquinas’s famous distinction between God’s primary and principal causation and the secondary and instrumental causation of creatures, a constructive model of the concurrence of divine and natural causes in evolutionary transformations is offered.

The eleventh chapter steps back from the specifics of the discussion and investigates the strengths and weaknesses of the various proposed theories of causality in the face of certain contemporary philosophical challenges. As a case study, the chapter focuses on a central issue in contemporary discussions of religion and science: the reconciliation of religious claims about divine causation with scientific explanations that depart from the premise that the world is a causally closed system. Here the chapter first provides a brief overview of the important controversies in the discussion of religion and science that are relevant to this topic. It then explores whether the examined theories on causality are viable options for thinking about the divine causality without undermining the rigor of the scientific approach to the world.

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.

In the third section of the book, a range of topics from doctrinal or systematic theology are considered, building on the survey of the first part of the book, which had dealt mainly with the doctrines of God and of creation. This chapter turns to Christology: to the doctrine of the Person of Christ and of the Incarnation, where participatory language and thinking have also been important. This is worked through in terms of a number of central contentions in traditional Christology. It also brings some less-often-considered aspects of the doctrine of Christ to the surface, such as Christ's participation in God through growth in virtues. A participatory account of Christology can bear witness to the full revelation and presence of God in, and as, Christ. This is contrasted with kenotic Christology.