Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Schöpfung, Modell: creatio ex divino -> Problem des Bösen

Kurzinhalt: Apart from the severe compromising of divine transcendence, one should also ask how this view of creation accounts for the problem of evil. If creation is from the very stuff of God, what "space" is there for evil?

Textausschnitt: CREATION EX DIVINO

6b According to such a view, creation is out of the divine substance itself. This view divinizes the created order and makes the universe the physical manifestation of God, leading to a form of pantheism. Such a view is increasingly popular among ecologically oriented groups who are seeking to preserve the natural environment. The claim made is that the created order is sacred in some sense. (Fs)

One can argue that this position is rejected in the creation account of Genesis 1, which is at pains to stress the transcendence, or otherness, of God, and the nondivine nature of the created order.1 The biblical author was rejecting the then widespread "pagan" view that failed to distinguish between the divine and the created. In fact, on this pagan view, creation is no longer "created" as such; rather it is a manifestation of divine being. Some might even speak of the divine as the soul of the cosmos, so that the cosmos is the body of God. (Fs)

6c Many might find this an attractive position; however, there are questions to be addressed. Apart from the severe compromising of divine transcendence, one should also ask how this view of creation accounts for the problem of evil. If creation is from the very stuff of God, what "space" is there for evil? Evil becomes less a moral issue than an epistemological one. It becomes the failure to acknowledge one's own divine nature. Such positions are becoming more common in various new age belief systems. Some might refer to this view as neopaganism, as evidenced in an increasing interest in the occult and witchcraft, found in some popular television programs. In its present form it can be a reaction to the perceived failures of traditional Christian belief to protect and preserve the natural environment. Most notable has been the critique of Christianity by Lynn White. White argues:

Especially in its Western form, Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen. As early as the 2nd century both Tertullian and Saint Irenaeus of Lyons were insisting that when God shaped Adam he was foreshadowing the image of the incarnate Christ, the Second Adam. Man shares, in great measure, God's transcendence of nature. Christianity, in absolute contrast to ancient paganism and Asia's religions (except, perhaps, Zorastrianism), not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.2

7a In a sense, Catholic thought is better placed to respond to this criticism because of its sacramental view of reality, which recognizes that the material order may mediate the divine, though without a strict identification that blurs the divine transcendence. The reaction is more in relation to a rationalistic understanding of God and religion that is seen in some forms of Protestant thought that place a greater emphasis on the divine Word received through the preaching of the gospel than on the sacraments as mediating God's grace. (Fs)