After the 6th DayCreatio Continua

Lecture 4: Mar 3, 2013

1. The Doctrine of Creation

2. Five Challenges to the Doctrine of Creation

3. The History of Doctrinal Evolution

4. The Doctrine of creatio continua

5. After the 6th Day …

1. The Doctrine of Creation

What do Christians believe about the creation … of humans, life, and the universe with all the galaxies, dark matter, dark energy, sub-atomic particles, anti-matter and even possible extra-terrestrial life?

In the light of advances in human knowledge over the past 2000 years, how ought we rethink the Christian doctrine of creation?

The doctrine of creation has been mistakenly seen as a competitor to the scientific origin theories of cosmogony (universe), biogenesis (life) and paleoanthropology (man).

Creation & Redemption

Unlike many creation myths of the Ancient Near East, the Christian doctrine of creation is not a quasi-historico-scientific account of past events but also about future events.

It is not a theory about the universe comparable to the Big Bang Model of cosmogony. It is neither testable nor falsifiable.

The doctrine of creation has always been intimately linked to the doctrine of redemption in the eschaton (end of temporality or created time). It was the question about our postmortem future (afterlife) that led to the development of the creation doctrine.

Biblical texts on creation

The basic biblical texts about creation are found in: Genesis 1 and 2The letters to the Ephesians and Colossians and The Prologue of John’s Gospel.

None of these texts were interested in describing a scientific or even historical chronology of the life of the universe.

“We believe that God almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

What does this mean in the context of the modern sciences of cosmology, of the origins of life, and of human origins?

Nothing!

…unless we make the doctrine say what the authors never intended – that it speaks to the question of origins.

Although genealogy (creation) is about the beginning of existence, it can only be understood with reference to the final purpose at the end of existence, its teleological eschatology (redemption).

A brief history of the doctrine of creation

Trinitarian theology

Augustinian spiritual wisdom

Aquinas’ rational discourse

Theology of time & space

Natural & moral evil (slavery, women’s rights)

Divine action & human freedom, miracles and chance

What the Doctrine of Creation actually teaches

1) God created everything that is not God. Creation caused into being realities other than God.

2) Everything God made was good, but not perfect. The world is supposed to be worldly. While the world was created good, the world we encounter is far from good. It presents us with a combination of good and evil. It needs to be redeemed.

3) Creation was formed in Christ (Col 1:16). This opens up the possibilities for a broad evolutionary development without being limited to a consistency with the various forms of Darwinist dogma.

2.

Five

Modern

Challenges –

1. Evolution by natural selection – Humans were not specially created but evolved from earlier mammals and share a considerable portion of the DNA and developmental genetics.

2. Contemporary cosmology and its impact on eschatology – The universe is much older and larger than we thought.

3. Particle and quantum physics – Energy and matter at the very small scale (quantum level) behave differently from our own macro scale, with time and space that is not linear (past, present, future).

4. Environmental & ecological sensibilities – God did not create the universe just for humanity – he also created bacteria, viruses and Ebola strains.

5. Neuroscience, personhood & moral cognition – Biology and social interaction (nature and nurture) shape our perception and behavior. So an autistic person is compromised by brain defects but can be dramatically helped by social therapy. Its not only all about genetics.

Furthermore, reason and emotions interact to give rise to cognition of neurons and brain function. So it is not true that either emotions or reason are superior, we need both facets of our brain functions to function normally.

Accounting for new universes, new life and new humanity?

The discovery of dark matter, dark energy and anti-matter, not to mention the possibility of multiple universes, have prompted the church to expand its claim of God’s continuing creation.

The discovery of extraterrestrial life should not surprise us.

Not only did modern humans change its structure over the past 7 million years, the evolution of the human species into a cyborg race has already begun with over 50% of the human body able to survive with replacement parts.

3. The history of doctrinal evolutionNo single doctrine of the Christian faith has survived unchanged

from the time of Jesus.

Each refinement may be traced to some increase in human understanding based on observation.

We have come to realize that nature change (evolves) over time as they adapt to changing conditions of weather, food supply, etc.

Christian doctrines changed significantly over the years in response to scientific, technological and medical advances.

Tests of Orthodoxy?

There has never been a single test of orthodoxy with the Church.

Each of the thousands of Christian denominations hold to a specifically distinct set of doctrines, with differences of opinion based upon shifting scientific paradigms.

But early Christian leaders were careful not to create dogma (test of orthodoxy) out of doctrine (teaching), so for e.g., John of Damascus cites scripture to show that the heavens are hemispherical (the flat earth position) and only cites philosophical reasons to show that the heavens are spherical (the round earth position). But he states that both views are within “the orthodox faith.” 

Christian responses to changing knowledge

In the 17th century, the Reformed theological faculty of Leiden declared the Copernican model of the universe to be contrary to scripture, but the Reformed churches wisely refused to follow their example.

Yet, today, many denominations consider it a firing offence if any clergy does not subscribe to a scientific interpretation of the scripture. The most common example is the interpretation that Adam and Eve were two individuals who were never born but created at a specific time, and immune to the forces of evolutionary change.

Christian responses to changing knowledge

The greatest temptation is to interpret Genesis 1 as the science of the day in order to assure its cultural respectability. 

We ought to refrain from bringing the scientific questions into the equation until after we have ascertained what the text says. 

The tendency to make Moses teach the received science of the day (whether Ptolemaic or Newtonian, whether evolution science or creation science) is dangerous. It burdens the Bible with prior knowledge of future science.

The creation doctrine was wrongly understood as a historical and scientific description of God’s engagement with the universe.

To account for this, theologians scrambled to keep up-

In the ancient past, creation was limited to the Jewish view of the earth as a flat disc on the waters, with a solid dome over it.

In the medieval times, ideas of a spherical earth floating in space took root. The Ptolemaic model.

In modern times, the magnitude and age of the universe was deemed to showcase the magnificent scope of creation.

They missed the point of the creation doctrine

The doctrine of creation was intended to describe the relationship between creator and creation, with the final goal of offering the hope of coming into the presence of God, not to posit a rival historical or scientific account of origins.

In the Bible, creation refers to more than just original creation, but also continuing creation and new creation.

4. The doctrine of creatio continua

Creation continues with creation acting as agents of God. God operates and acts with and through creation.

The account of creation in Genesis places the 7th day as the day of rest, when God’s creatio initio (creation) is complete and creatio continua (providence) begins.

Creation itself is evolving according to God’s intention

Any Christian claim to God’s sovereignty must come to terms with the fact that every part of nature, observable or not (depending of the capability of tools such as optical scopes, measuring instruments and finely-tuned detectors), is part of God’s creation.

Our scientific knowledge of new matter, new life and even new humans hitherto unknown, should cause us to celebrate the almightiness of God.

Why does creation die?

Another bad doctrine: By the late medieval age, the Church introduced the idea of a mythic age of created perfection by using Paul’s midrash in Romans to interpret the poetry of Genesis. By introducing the idea of the ‘fall’ into the Genesis text, it accounted for the created process of death as a bad side-effect, even though it was God’s plan for a post-mortem resurrection.

Since the biology of life is linked to the death of prior life-forms, from microbial to plant to animal life. God made life like this.

Divine Kenosis

A better doctrine is to understand creation as divine kenosis, a costly grace that gives rise to both life and death, joy and suffering – because the telos (ultimate purpose) is a complete cosmic reconciliation between creator and creation.

5. After the 6th Day …Sabbath?

The account of creation in Genesis places the 7th day as the day of rest, when God’s creation is complete and providence begins.

Creatio ex nihilo = c. originalis + c. continua + c. nova

Creatio originalis causes God no effort while creatio continua + creatio nova imposes a burden for which the Sabbath celebrates its finished work.

God ‘created’ & God ‘made’

The creation narrative in Genesis uses two different words, ‘bara’ (create) and ‘asah’ (make).

‘Bara’ refers to originating creation (the heavens and the earth) while ‘asah’ refers to a transformative crafting of what has already been created (the heavens and the earth).

God ‘created’ in no time (kairic time) but ‘made’ in time (chronic

time), the duration of ‘six days’.

How the Kingdom of God became Heaven

The church’s made heaven the place of salvation for the soul.

The prayer for the kingdom on earth to come as it is in heaven was replaced by our longing ‘to go to heaven’.

The kingdom of God’s glory and salvation of all creation became heaven which in turn became the salvation of the human soul.

Heaven is now as uncreated and eternal as God, and is no longer a part of creation (despite Genesis 1: 1).

Old/New Heaven & Old/New Earth

God is the creator of heaven (where God is present, along with the angels) and earth (where all other creation is present) – the writer/s were not aware of the size of the universe.

Upon redemption to a new heaven and a new earth, we collectively form the kingdom of God or kingdom of glory, to which our resurrected bodies will be drawn.

Following earthly death, our souls arrive at the old heaven, unredeemed, to await the resurrection and join God’s dwelling, which will then be the new heaven and earth.

Teilhard de Chardin’s challenge to human primacy

Advances in astronomy (the infinite universe), biology (the various types of humanoids, some of which became

extinct) and psychoanalysis (which exposed the unconscious drives and

involuntary suppressions), suggest our incidental appearance on earth – this means that

although we eventually emerged in history, we are contingent and God could have made another species to receive the Image of God.

Jurgen Moltmann’s Open Creation

The universe is in disequilibrium and an irreversible history (non-cyclic time) permits only unique events. With no repetition, ‘natural laws’ are mere approximations.

The future of any phenomena therefore cannot be said to be predictable by laws but rather, are open to contingencies unknown to us (quantum indeterminacy). The future is not fixed.

The universe is participatory, anticipatory and self-transcendent (which subsists from God’s transcendency).

ConclusionIf God’s good (but imperfect) creation includes all that were, all

that are now, and all that are to be, within the complete range of space and time (geohistory), then Christians need not be fearful that their fixed doctrine will fall short of experienced reality.

We can now embrace the gift of science, technology and medicine as evolving gifts of God through the human mind.

So, what did God do after the 6th Day? He completed the initial creation (creatio initio) but continues to create (creatio continua) as we marvel at the future unfolding of his grace in a new creation (creatio nova) to come.

Implications

The doctrine of creation begins with reflection on the doctrine of redemption – salvation.

The long evolutionary history of the doctrine means that as it changes in line with fresh insights drawn from new data, no current doctrine will remain static.

If we were created for a purposeful future, someone greater than ourselves must value us. To live life is a special gift. We are capable of much more than we dare hope. We are called to a nobler existence than we presume.

Application

Do not be unnecessarily anxious about the wrong issues. Consider what is beyond our capacity to transform and what is within our ability to change for the better. Then get on with it – Carpe diem (seize the day)

Welcome new knowledge (science, the arts, music, literature) as gifts from God, so we may

-bind up the wounds and alleviate human suffering, -seek justice from the oppressed and speak up for the voiceless, -model generosity to those who are less fortunate.

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