Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Genesis, Schöpfung: creatio ex nihilo -> Heil, das Gute aus dem Bösen; Schöpfung, Heil ohne Bedingung

Kurzinhalt: Metaphysically, creation ex nihilo means creation without prior conditions or constraints, whether these be the constraint of preexistent matter or of some form of necessity imposed on the divine being. It does not mean creation of matter into empty ...

Textausschnitt: CREATION EX NIHILO

3b It is commonly stated that Christian belief holds that God created the universe ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 338).1 When we look at the account in chapter 1 of Genesis, however, we do not find such an account. Rather there is a suggestion that God created the universe out of something preexistent: "the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters" (Gen 1:2).2 Given what we stated above, that the basic analogue for creation is one of social order out of the chaos of lawlessness, this is not surprising. The view of creation "out of nothing" is very sophisticated-indeed unimaginable-and we should not read it into this early biblical text. (Fs) (notabene)

4a The material in Genesis, however, is only one source for a Christian understanding of creation. The Psalms, wisdom literature, and prophetic literature also provide some interesting material. Of particular interest is the hymn to Wisdom in Proverbs 8:22-31 (also Wis 9:9-12, Sir 24:3-22), which forms the background of New Testament reflection on the divine Word and its role in creation. However, we shall turn attention to the initial emergence of belief in creation ex nihilo, a belief that begins in the period of the Maccabean persecutions. Thus, in 2 Maccabees 7:28 we find: "I beg you my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed." What is interesting here is the context of the affirmation that God did not create "out of things that existed." The context is not one of metaphysical speculation, as found in the Greek philosophers. Rather the concern is with the possibility of resurrection from the dead, in the face of a major historical problem faced by the Jewish people. Prophetic literature had always understood the defeats and sufferings of Israel as a punishment for their infidelity to the Law. This was the standard prophetic line, particularly in the Deuteronomistic school of thought.3 The Maccabean persecution was something different. Now they were suffering precisely because they were being faithful to the Law. The traditional prophetic response no longer worked. One feature of this period is the emergence of apocalyptic works such as the Book of Daniel, which seek to give the people hope that their suffering from persecution will not be too long. Nonetheless, the conviction that God is both creator of all that is, and just, required a better solution than simple perseverance-what about those who had died in the persecution? What justice could they expect? The solution was the hope/expectation of resurrection:

The creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origins of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws. (2 Mace 7:23)
5a This same linking between belief in resurrection and creation ex nihilo is found in the New Testament. There Paul speaks of God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom 4:17).The significance of this runs parallel to what we have already seen in the Old Testament, that the issues of creation and redemption cannot be separated. The God who creates is the God who saves and vice versa. Christian faith resists any attempt to separate the two functions, as found in the Marcionite heresy, which set the God of the Old Testament (the creator) in opposition to the God of the NewTestament (the redeemer).4 The work of salvation, of bringing good out of the evil of sin, is truly an act of creation ex nihilo, a fundamentally creative act. We shall have more to say on this when we consider the problem of evil. (Fs)

5b Now while the roots of the biblical belief in creation ex nihilo lie in the saving power of God, it remains a belief rich in metaphysical meaning. Metaphysically, creation ex nihilo means creation without prior conditions or constraints, whether these be the constraint of preexistent matter or of some form of necessity imposed on the divine being. It does not mean creation of matter into empty space at a certain point in time, as we might commonly imagine. Space and time are already things that are themselves created. In this sense creation ex nihilo is, strictly speaking, unimaginable. We can form no image of it, since any image we might develop evokes notions of space and time. We can try to understand it in terms of an analogy of personal causation, for example, the creative work of an artist creating a work of art, or an engineer building a bridge. But all our analogies break down because God's creative act is complete and without any prior conditions or constraints, whereas in all our analogies people work with something that already exists and transform it into something new. Moreover, on this account God is not constrained to create; God's creative act is entirely free. There is no cause for creation apart from God's free act, God's loving will. Finally, God is not constrained by the limits of some preexistent material that confines the divine options. The freedom of this act is complete and sovereign. This sovereignty is the ultimate guarantee that creation is good. There are no prior conditions that limit God's creative act, nothing preexisting that lies beyond God's will or power.5 (Fs)

6a In order to clarify further the significance of creation ex nihilo we can compare it with some of the alternatives that others have explored in the history of religious and philosophical thought. (Fs)