For example, to view nature as created ex nihilo implies that the universe is contingent and rational, and these views provide two of the fundamental philosophical assumptions on which modern science is based. By the creation ex nihilo tradition I mean to include its long and complex development by Jewish, Muslim and Christian theologians and philosophers during what is often called the Patristic and Middle Ages. Of course other sources of these assumptions were contributory, but it is important to remember that the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, has, in historical fact, served in this way. Foster, "Christian Doctrine of Creation."; Klaaren, "Religious Origins of Modern Science."; Lindberg and Numbers, God and nature; Deason, "Reformation Theology."; Deason, "Protestant Theology." Christopher B. Kaiser, Creation and the History of Science, The History of Christian Theology Series, No. 3 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1991); Nicholas Wolterstorff, Reason Within the Bounds of Religion (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1976);; Jitse M. van der Meer, Editor, Facets of Faith & Science, Four Volumes (Ancaster, Ontario; Lanham: The Pascal Centre for Advanced Studies in Faith and Science; University Press of America, Inc., 1996), esp. Vols. 2, 3; George Murphy, "Possible Influences of Biblical Beliefs Upon Physics," Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 48.2(June 1996).