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Four Medieval Views of Creation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

John H. Gay
John H. Gay
Affiliation:
Cuttington College, Monrovia, Liberia
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Extract

It is possible to view the natural world in two ways: as necessary, bound by consubstantial ties to whatever else has being; or as contingent, possessing being only through the free power of something else which is itself necessary. These two positions in their purest form are naturalism and supernaturalism, the one monistic and the other dualistic. According to the first, the natural world is all that is; and self-understanding and self-realization are the proper activities of man. According to the second, the natural world must bow before its Creator, Who brought it into being from pure nothingness; and the proper activities of man are work and worship. Exemplary of these positions are the Timaeus of Plato and the creation narrative of Genesis 1:1–2:4a.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , October 1963 , pp. 243 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

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References

1 Plato, “Timaeus,” Dialogues, tr. Jowett, B. (New York, 1937), 27–28.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., 29.

3 Ibid., 37.

4 Plotinus, The Enneads, tr. McKenna, S., 2nd ed. (London, 1956), II.1.5.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., I.6.3.

6 Ibid., IV.9.4.

7 Ibid., IV.9.5.

8 Hegel, G. W. F., The Phenomenology of Mind, tr. Baillie, J. B., 2nd ed. (New York, 1931), p. 105.Google Scholar

9 Augustine, “Confessions,” Basic Writings of Saint Augustine, ed. Oates, Whitney J. (New York, 1948), XI.5.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., XI.9.

11 Ibid., XI.8.

12 Augustine, The City of God, tr. Dods, Marcus (New York, 1950), X.23.Google Scholar

13 Augustine, Confessions, VII.12.

14 Ibid., VII.15.

15 Ibid., XIII.2.

16 Ibid., VII.11.

17 Ibid., XII.7.

18 Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names, I.3 (tr. Rolt, C. E., Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names and The Mystical Theology; London, 1940).Google Scholar

19 Ibid., I.7.

20 Ibid., V.6.

21 Ibid., II.7.

22 Ibid., IV.32.

23 Ibid., XIII.2.

24 Ibid., IV.10.

25 Dionysius, Mystical Theology, V.

26 Ibid., I.

27 Dionysius, On the Divine Names, II.10 (quoting Hierotheus, Elements of Divinity).

28 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles (the Truth of the Catholic Faith), ed. Pegis, Anton C. (Garden City, 1955–1957). II.38.13.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., I.13.14.

30 St. Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica,” Basic Writings, ed. Pegis, Anton C. (New York, 1945), I.2.3.Google Scholar

31 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, I.26.10.

32 Ibid., II.6.6.

33 Ibid., II.14.1.

34 Ibid., II.85.15

35 Ibid., II.45.2.

36 Ibid., II.45.4.

37 Ibid., III.19.3.

38 Ibid., III.7.3.

39 Ibid., III.60.3.

40 Nicolas Cusanus, The Vision of God, tr. Salter, Emma Gurney (New York, 1928), IX.Google Scholar

41 Nicolas Cusanus, Of Learned Ignorance, tr. Fr. Heron, Germain (London, 1954), II.3.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., II.3.

43 Ibid., III.3.

44 Nicolas Cusanus, The Vision of God, VI.