This book examines the implications for our understanding of the universe of the Judaeo-Christian claim that it is contingent: freely created by God out of nothing, and having an existence, freedom, and rational order of its own while still dependent on God.The author argues that this claim made possible the development of western empirical science, but that Newtonian physics obscured the connection between the rational order of nature and the Christian doctrine of creation. He then shows how modern relativity and quantum theories have once again drawn attention to the significance of contingence, and imply that the universe is found to be consistently rational only if it is dependent on a creative rationality beyond it.