For F.O.D.: Creation ex nihilo
Submitted by Ray on April 08 2000 10:02:26
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F.O.D., I haven't forgotten your questions. But I decided to move this to the top of the board, not because I think it's that important for readers of this board, but because your questions were under a thread that was started on March 24 and were getting lost! What's the problem with creation ex nihilo? Do you mean if God created the universe, then it must carry a certain portion of him or something along those lines? Not really, but maybe, depending on what you mean! I believe that God is intimately part of the universe, not that it carries part of him! Actually, I not sure I understand what all you imply by "carry a certain portion of him." So if I don't understand you, you probably won't understand me here either, because we are on different wavelengths, or something like that! First maybe a definition or description of "creation ex nihilo" is in order. Basically it means or implies that God preexisted the created world or universe and created all that is from nothing. I see creation as the power of God at work in ordering chaos, and creation ex nihilo (which seems to imply that God created the chaos) as separating God from this universe -- the phenomenon that God is "somewhere up there" in Heaven -- an understanding which led the Russian astronauts to say that they didn't see God when they were up in "space" for the first time. And the same understanding that leads some people to feel that God is not near, or unavailable -- a "distant" God. My understanding of God and interpretation of the first creation story is that creation begins with chaos and God is at work from within the chaos, not outside of it. (Gen. 1:1-2 NRSV: In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God [one possible translation from a footnote: while a mighty wind] swept over the face of the waters.) God is a power, or force at work within the matter, space and time that is the chaotic chaos, the "formless void" (compare to sand dunes in a desert, or waves on the ocean, not to a vacuum). I don't conceive of God as having a "being" outside of the universe, or of God as being without beginning and end and the universe having a beginning and end. In my belief system, I have no problem with the creation story beginning with God and chaos! All of which may make some persons cringe at the "limits" I place on "the omnipotent, omniscent, omnipresent God" of classical philosophy. (You realize of course that this is getting deeper into theoretics than most people care to go!) See if you find helpful in understanding what I'm trying to say the following from The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, original c1962, 15th printing c1985: CREATION. 2. The sovereignty of the Creator a. Creation by Word b. Creation ex nihilo. In later theological reflection [after Old Testament] upon the meaning of creation, the sovereignty of the Creator was further emphasized by the doctrine that the world was created out of nothing (II Macc. 3:28; cf. Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:3). It is doubtful, however, whether this teaching is found explicitly in Gen. 1 or anywhere else in the Old Testament. As suggested in the footnote of the RSV, it is grammatically possible to treat Gen. 1:1 as a temporal clause which introduces a main sentence beginning with vs. 2 or even vs. 3. It is probable, however, that vs. 1 should be construed as an independent sentence which serves as a preface to the entire creation account. On this view, the story actually begins in vs. 2 with a portrayal of uncreated chaos as the presupposition and background of God’s creative work. The notion of creation out of nothing was undoubtedly too abstract for the Hebraic mind [and still is for me! I find it an unnecessary distancing of God from the universe and not compatible with my modern "scientific" understanding of the universe. /Ray], and, in any case, the idea of created chaos would have been strange to a narrative which is governed by the view that creation is the antithesis of chaos. The main intention of the writer is to emphasize the absolute sovereignty of God. There is not the slightest hint that God is bound or conditioned by chaos, as in the Babylonian Enuma Elis, which portrays the birth of the gods out of the waters of chaos. Nor does God have the character of a demiurge who works with material which offers some resistance or places limitations upon his will. On the contrary, he creates with perfect freedom by his word... . Or does all this just confuse the issue more for you? Ray |
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