Creation ex nihilo

Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges

Gary A. Anderson, Markus Bockmuehl, Gary A. Anderson, Markus Bockmuehl

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780268102548, 9780268102531
• eBook ISBN: 9780268102562
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The phrase "creation ex nihilo" refers to the primarily Christian notion of God's creation of everything from nothing. Creation ex nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges presents the findings of a joint research project at Oxford University and the University of Notre Dame in 2014–2015. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo has met with criticism and revisionary theories in recent years from the worlds of science, theology, and philosophy. This volume concentrates on several key areas: the relationship of the doctrine to its purported biblical sources, how the doctrine emerged in the first several centuries of the Common Era, why the doctrine came under heavy criticism in the modern era, how some theologians have responded to the objections, and the relationship of the doctrine to claims of modern science—for example, the fundamental law of physics that matter cannot be created from nothing.

Although the Bible never expressly states that God made everything from nothing, various texts are taken to imply that the universe came into existence by divine command and was not assembled from preexisting matter or energy. The contributors to this volume approach this topic from a range of perspectives, from exposition to defense of the doctrine itself.

This is a unique and fascinating work whose aim is to present the reader with a compelling set of arguments for why the doctrine should remain central to the grammar of contemporary Christian theology. As such, the book will appeal to theologians as well as those interested in the relationship between theology and science.

Contributors: Gary A. Anderson, Markus Bockmuehl, Janet Soskice, Richard J. Clifford, S.J., Sean M. McDonough, Gregory E. Sterling, Khaled Anatolios, John C. Cavadini, Joseph Wawrykow, Tzvi Novick, Daniel Davies, Cyril O'Regan, Ruth Jackson, David Bentley Hart, Adam D. Hincks, S.J., Andrew Pinsent, and Andrew Davison.

SUBJECT INDEX

Specific works will be found under the author’s name. Citations to biblical and other foundational texts are located in the separate Index of Citations.

R. Abba b. Kahana, 200

Abram/Abraham, 24–25, 44, 88, 202

Abravanel, Isaac, 8, 214, 223–25, 227–28

abyss

in Augustine’s Confessions, 160, 161, 163, 165, 170n22

demon-locusts issuing from, in Revelation, 83–84, 96n17

Adam, 103, 160, 202

“aha!” moment or epiphany, 350, 361n11

R. Ahavah b. R. Ze‘ira, 200

R. Akiva, 199, 209n16

Akkadian cosmogonies, 4, 57–62, 64, 76n18

Aknai, oven of, 205

Alcinous, Didaskalikos, 117n62

Alexander of Aphrodisias, 388n34

Alexandrinus, 94n3

Ambrosiaster, 168n5

R. Ammi, 208n15

Anatolios, Khaled, 6, 26, 81

ancient Near Eastern creation myths, 17–19, 57–63

Akkadian cosmogonies, 4, 57–62, 64, 76n18

Atrahasis, 4, 59, 61, 66, 67

biblical creation stories and, 4, 17–18, 19, 22, 55, 56, 57–63

chaos in, 62, 63

Egyptian cosmogonies, 63

Enki and Ninhursag, 58, 72

Enuma Elish, 4, 17–18, 22, 61–62, 74, 75

Gilgamesh, 59

modern theology and, 40, 57–63

Palm and Tamarisk, 60

as past event that can be annually celebrated, creation as, 74

precreation state in, 55, 57, 58–59, 72

purpose of, 75

Sumerian cosmogonies, 57–69, 66, 72

Ugaritic cosmogonies, 63

Andersen, Hans Christian, “The Snow Queen,” 365n49

Anderson, Gary A., 3–4

anima mundi, 256

animals given as payment to prostitute not offerable as sacrifice in fulfillment of vow, 204–5

annihilation, in Revelation, 86–89

Anselm of Canterbury, 179

anthropic universe, 342n20

Antiochus of Ascalon, 102, 115n22

Apocalypse. See Revelation Apocalypse of Weeks, 96–97n23

apocalyptic. See eschatology and creation

Apostles’ Creed, 42–43, 49, 52n1

Aqedah, 103

Aquinas. See Thomas Aquinas Archimedes, 350, 361n13

Arians and Arianism, 121

Aristotle and Aristotelianism

on actuality and potentiality, 381–82, 389n47

Averroes’ commentaries on, 221

Bonaventure and, 176

early theologians making use of, 44

eternity of world in, 195, 222

god and creation in, 39, 222

Maimonides and, 220, 221–23, 226, 266n10, 268n29, 268n31

medieval recovery of, 176, 221

on metaphysics, 379

Metaphysics, 117n73, 388n35, 389nn43–45, 389nn47–48

on nothingness, 267–68n29

Philo and, 45, 101, 102, 103, 108, 112

Schleiermacher and, 283

scientific cosmology and, 333

second-person relatedness not

found in, 355, 357

Thomas Aquinas and, 174, 176, 191n10

Arnaldez, Roger, 114n17

Arnold, Bill T., 377

ASD (autistic spectrum disorder), 353–54, 363n26

aseity, divine, 242, 268n33

Athanasius of Alexandria, 6

anti-Arianism of, 121

on Christology and creation, 122–23, 142

Contra Gentes (Against the Greeks), 6, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126–30, 132, 133, 136–39, 141, 146n1

De incarnatione (On the Incarnation), 6, 49, 81–82, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126, 130, 131, 134, 137–39, 141, 146n1, 188

on dialectic of creaturely being, 121, 132–36

on divine goodness, 121, 124–32, 134, 136, 141, 144

double treatise, Against the Greeks–On the Incarnation as, 119–21, 146n1

dualism and, 49

on evil and death, 121, 136–40

existential meaning of creation ex

nihilo in, 120, 144–46

on free will, 25–26, 134–35, 139

on grace, 25–26, 132, 133, 134, 145

on nature (physis), 133, 145

ontology of creation ex nihilo in, 121, 124–40

on Revelation and concept of nothingness, 6, 81–82, 89, 92

on role of creation doctrine within Christian theology, 120, 121–24, 146–47n3

on salvation/redemption and creation, 120, 121, 123, 130, 133, 136–37, 140–43, 145–46, 148n30

atheism, Spinoza viewed as apostle of, 251, 252

Atkins, Peter, 380

Atrahasis, 4, 59, 6...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Creatio ex nihilo and the Bible
• Why Creatio ex nihilo for Theology Today?
• Creatio ex nihilo in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
• Being and Nothingness in the Book of Revelation
• “The Most Perfect Work”: The Role of Matter in Philo of Alexandria
• Creatio ex nihilo in Athanasius of Alexandria’s Against the Greeks–On the Incarnation
• Creatio ex nihilo in the Thought of Saint Augustine
• Aquinas and Bonaventure on Creation
• Creator, Text, and Law: Torah as Independent Power in Rabbinic Judaism
• Reason, Will, and Purpose: What’s at Stake for Maimonides and His Followers in the Doctrine of Creation?
• Spinoza and the Eclipse of Creation from Nothing
• The Doctrine of Creation and the Problem of the Miraculous in the Modern Theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher
• The Devil’s March: Creatio ex nihilo, the Problem of Evil, and a Few Dostoyevskian Meditations
• What Does Physical Cosmology Say about Creation from Nothing?
• Eyesight with Insight: Cosmology and Second-Person Inspiration
• Looking Back toward the Origin: Scientific Cosmology as Creation ex nihilo Considered “from the Inside”
• List of Contributors
• Subject Index
• Index of Citations