CREATION

The scriptural presentation of creation is treated first in this article, prefaced, however, by some attention to the Near Eastern literary context. There follows a dogmaticotheological consideration of creation.

1. IN THE BIBLE

Israel's concept of creation as it is found in the Bible must be studied in its ancient Near Eastern setting; for it

borrowed, purified, elevated and added to the creation concepts of the ancient East. Therefore, this section describes the concept of creation outside Israel and the concept of creation in Israel in the preexilic, the exilic, and the postexilic writings of the Old Testament, followed by a brief treatment of the development of the creation concept in the New Testament and a discussion of the iconography of creation.

In the Ancient Near East. The Old Babylonian creation concept as it is found in the enuma elish (J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 60–72) begins with Apsu and Tiamat, male and female deities, begetting other gods. Apsu is slain by his offspring Ea. Tiamat, after an epic battle, is slain by marduk, Ea's son, after he has been proclaimed chief god. From her remains Marduk fashions the world. Kingu, Tiamat's counselor, is slain; and from his blood mankind is fashioned.

According to the Egyptian theology of Heliopolis, Atum-Re, after being produced from Nun (waters of chaos), fertilized himself through masturbation and then sputtered out Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), putting his vital force, or ka, in them. They in turn produced Geb (earth), Nut (sky), and the other gods (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 3–4, 6–7). The same account says that men came into being from the tears that came forth from the eye of ra (re). At nearby Memphis the god Ptah was the creator, and all the living beings came into existence from what his heart thought and his tongue commanded (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 5). At Elephantine, near Aswan, it was said that all living beings were fashioned on a potter's wheel by the god Khnum.

In Canaan the god El bore the title of "creator of creatures" and also "father (i.e., creator) of men," and his consort, Asherah, "progenitress of the gods" (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 131–132). In some cases these gods fashioned things from matter; in others they produced them from their own being; but they themselves came from primordial matter. The Israelites were familiar with these and many other stories. J. L. McKenzie (77) says, after discussing the Mesopotamian myth: "Against this background, the Hebrew account of origins can scarcely be anything else but a counterstatement to the myth of creation." But it is a counterstatement clothed in familiar imagery.

In Genesis 1. "Creation account" is the name given to Gn 1.1–2.4a, which literary critics ascribe to the Pentateuchal

priestly writers. By this story the salvation history of Israel is introduced in solemn and majestic tones, a veritable liturgy of the primordial manifestation of God's saving activity. An examination of its literary structure and an attempt to determine its literary genre in the light of modern discoveries of the ancient past will help one to see how modern exegesis has developed the traditional interpretation of the passage.

Structure. The account is characterized by a very schematic arrangement in which the same formulas, or their general equivalents, are successively repeated. This is particularly true of the hexaemeron, or six-day work of creation (Gn 1.3–31), although the seventh-day rest (Gn 2.2b–3) is an equally essential element of the story. The first verse seems to be a kind of title verse. It may have superseded, or even have been originally combined with, Gn 2.4a, a formula type introduction used ten times in Genesis. The introduction to the account (Gn 1.2) is a description of an emptiness that breathes a certain air of expectancy; God's spirit is poised for action. The words of 2.1–2a form a conclusion to the six-day work, but the grand climax is the seventh-day rest.

Eight distinct works are involved in the six-day period, two on the third and two on the sixth day. This may be a sign that a more ancient form of the account has been adapted to the six-day framework in order to express a new idea. There is also a parallelism between the first three days and the last three days. Various sections of the cosmos are first created, then they are adorned with moving objects. The literary elements of the "first day"(1.3–5) can be designated by letters: A—God's word (3a); B—The word creates (3b); C—God's complacency (3c); D—The work described (4); E—Naming, or blessing, E2 (5a); F—Day concluded (5b). The following pattern for the six-day narration then emerges: The text followed here is the Confraternity (CCD) translation, which is from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) with some corrections from the septuagint (LXX). The LXX has a tendency to fill out the pattern where elements seem to be lacking in the MT. However, one cannot say a priori that the original pattern must have been perfectly symmetrical (A B D E C F) throughout. Intentional variation of pattern, as well as expansion or alteration of literary formula, for the sake of literary effect or theological emphasis is part of the composer's artistry. The creation of the astral bodies (1.14) has a theological significance. The creation of man is a definite climax that is expressed by means of the deliberative form of command (1.26), by the repetition in poetic meter (1.27), and by the twofold blessing (1.28–30). The final note of divine complacency also is emphasized (1.31a).

Doctrine. The first chapter of Genesis presents certain teachings about God, about man, about the sabbath, and about salvation history.

God. Genesis ch. 1 presents a somewhat developed idea of God's activity. It was written at a period when the original revelation granted to Israel had developed far beyond the primitive stage, after Israel had had experience of its God for many centuries. Because of the steady stream of prophetic clarification, the development of priestly zeal for the worship, and the deeper understanding of the ways of God through the reliving of the religious heritage of the past, the account conceives God no longer simply as the saving God of Israel, but as the God of all things and all men. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to understand it as expressing concepts that derive from the perfection of Christian revelation or subsequent theological development. The foundations for such a development may be in the Genesis account, but one must distinguish what is expressly taught from what has been elaborated by later theological thinking. The polemic origins, as well as the main development of the story itself, point unmistakably to the central idea: instead of being the haphazard act of many gods, creation is the purposeful act of one God, the God of Israel. The gods of other peoples have no power over Israel, have no power over the world, because the world does not owe its origin to any act or conflict of theirs. The God of Israel is alone and completely independent in the formation of the world. True, it is but one step further to conclude that He is the only God, but this point is not developed. "In the beginning" implies God's preexistence, but the theological concept of eternity is still lacking.

The process of creation is pictured as drawing order and individual existence out of chaos, but this is not intended to mean that God formed the world out of some preexisting material. Chaos, an indistinguishable watery mass without order, form, or identity, completely undefinable, was an imaginative way of trying to describe nothingness, an abstract concept not yet developed in the

Hebrew mind. To personalize and deify nothingness was the pagan's error. It is the creation of the visible world that is being considered. Nothing is said about the spirit world, although its existence may be implied in 1.26. In spite of the anthropomorphic descriptions, God completely transcends this world. It is in no way a part of Him or any emanation from Him. It exists only because He wills it. Even light, often associated with the "glory" of God, is a distinct creation.

Man. The closest thing to God is man, "made in the image and likeness of God," the climax of His creative activity. Some exegetes interpret 1.26 as a picture of God addressing His heavenly court, implying the meaning: "Let us make man to the image of heavenly being." Whether this be correct or not, the divine likeness seems to consist in the fact of man's dominion over God's visible creation. This dominion, of course, requires something in man that is God-like, his powers of mind and will. Thus, as a theological conclusion, it may be correct to say that it is man's soul that is the image of God, but the Hebrew mind did not conceive man as a dichotomy of body and soul. It saw man only as a unified living being. The life that he has and can pass on to others and the dominion that he has over the rest of creation are special

blessings that make him more like God than anything God has made.

Sabbath. The arrangement, evidently artificial, of the picture of creation as six days of work (for eight works) with a seventh-day rest is simply an imaginative way of expressing the fact that the sabbath observance also is willed by God. The origin of the Sabbath is not known, but it is vindicated in Genesis as the will of God, who has led His chosen people, through their hereditary customs and reasonable practices, to adopt this method of consecrating their lives to Him by regular worship. This is, in fact, the real climax of the story. All things must return to God, who made them. This is done by the Sabbath observance, which sets man apart for God alone. Sanctified by the will of God, it sanctifies man; and through him, all creation. Eschatological inference is not lacking. Man will enter into the joyous rest of the Lord when his work in this world is done. The author gives no conclusion to the 7th day. Finally, the whole of the account is permeated by the idea of goodness, which is of God. Evil has not yet appeared; but when it does, it will come from man.

Salvation History. The primordial activity of God is presented in the first pages of the Bible as the beginning of God's activity on behalf of His chosen ones. Because of man's sin, chaos threatens to return and destroy God's creation, but the Creator always remains active. His activity is then manifest as a saving activity, and this is recorded in the history of His chosen people, a salvation history that is the whole story of the Bible.

Elsewhere in the Old Testament. Israelite thought on creation naturally owed something to the cultures with which the Israelites were in daily contact, especially in its literary formulation. Their beliefs and teachings on creation, however, far transcended anything found in these other cultures because of the transcendent concept of God and His relation to the cosmos held by the Israelites.

Terminology. It is instructive to study the Hebrew verbs that describe the creative work of God. It is said that God founds (yāsad ) the world, establishes (kônēn -polel of kûn ) it, builds (bānâ ), forms (yāṣar ), and makes (‘āšâ) His creatures. These verbs are not used exclusively of the activity of God. The verb qānâ however, when it means to make rather than to acquire, always has Yahweh as its subject. And the verb bārā ', used as a technical term by Deutero-Isaiah, always has as an object a product that is new, wonderful, astonishing; is reserved exclusively for God's works; and never has an accusative of material. Although seldom found in early writings, it is used frequently in exilic and postexilic writings.

Preexilic Writings. The creation story of the yahw ist (Gn 2.4b–25) does not describe the production of the earth but speaks of the garden (see paradise) planted by God and then describes the formation of man. G. von Rad points out that here creation is expressly intended to be understood as a prologue and as a start of the divine saving work in Israel. Elsewhere in the preexilic writings Jeremia clearly speaks of Yahweh creating the world: "It was I who made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power, with my outstretched arm" (Jer 27.5; see also 31.35). And Isaiah further pictures God as the one who fashions history, by bringing to pass His saving plan in history (Is 37.26; 22.11). The "Most High God" of Melchizedek (Gn 14.19; Heb. 'ēl 'elyôn ), who is "creator of heaven and earth," is reminiscent of the Canaanite god El mentioned above; Abraham identifies Him with the God he worships (v. 22). The preexilic statements on creation are relatively few, but they are clear.

There is no reference to creation in the "cultic credo" of Jos 24.2–15; Dt 6.20–25; 26.5–9; 1 Sm 12.7–11. Von Rad suggests that Israel's first view of sal vation history (heilsgeschichte) centered on the Exodus, and that it was not until much later that Israel recognized that saving history began with creation, the first saving event, the beginning of their history. Ps 18 (19) and the passages mentioned above show that this connection was made quite early. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) speaks of the revelation of creation and the revelation of the covenant as inseparable: "Creation is revealed as the first step toward this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful love" (CCC 288).

Exilic and Postexilic Writings. In the Psalms and in Job, creation is often depicted as a struggle or battle in which God vanquishes chaos, a primordial monster. For instance, in Ps 73 (74).12–15 it is said, "Yet, O God, my king from of old, you doer of saving deeds on earth, you stirred up the sea by your might, you smashed the heads of the dragons in the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan, and made him food for the dolphins. You released the springs and torrents; you brought dry land out of the primeval waters." Here may be seen an echo of the battle of Marduk against the monster Tiamat in the Enuma elish. The monster is also called leviathan in Jb3.8, but elsewhere its name is Rahab [Jb 9.13; Is 51.10; Ps 88 (89).11]. Because these passages are late, there was no danger of a polytheistic interpretation; the monsters have no more substance than a desert mirage.

In the sapiential books God is sometimes presented as an architect and the builder of the heavens and the earth. He does this through personified Wisdom, as in Prv8.27–31: "When he established the heavens …, then was I beside him as his craftsman …." In Prv 3.19 itis said that "the Lord by wisdom founded the earth, established the heavens by understanding." This is reminiscent of the story of Ptah at Memphis. In Wis 7.22 the author refers to Wisdom as "the artificer of all."

It was Deutero-Isaiah (i.e., the author of Is ch. 40–55), however, who, toward the end of the Babylonian Exile, more fully developed the concept of Yahweh as creator and prepared the way for the profound theology of the Priestly account in Gn 1.1–2.4a. C. Stuhlmueller points out several major contributions to the concept of creation made by this anonymous author. For him, the Hebrew verb bārā ' becomes a technical term referring only and always to the creative work of Yahweh. With him also the "word of God" is God's instrument of creation: it goes forth with irresistible power to create and to renew. It is personal, responsible, and effective: "… so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it" (Is 55.11). It is also Deutero-Isaiah who so clearly marks off the "beginning" from the everlasting existence of God: "Who has performed these deeds? He who has called forth the generations since the beginning. I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last I will also be" (41.4). And finally Deutero-Isaiah presents creation as a saving event, an act of salvation, to be consummated by the second creation on the eschatological day of the Lord. Some other striking features of Deutero-Isaiah are the creation of darkness by Yahweh (45.7) and the creation of history effortlessly and irresistibly by Yahweh (41.20). And the power of Yahweh is eloquently contrasted with the powerlessness of idols made by men (40.18–28).

Few modern scholars hold that creation "out of nothing" is taught in the Old Testament. The abstract notion of nothing does not seem to have been reached by the Israelite mind at that time. The somewhat late statement of Wis 11.17 that God "had fashioned the universe from formless matter" (ἐξ ἀμόρφου ὕλ ης) does not contradict this. It seems better to conclude that their silence on the subject of material used in creation made possible the later conclusion. Only in 2 Mc 7.28 is creation ex nihilo possibly stated, but the expression οủκ ἐξ ὄυχτων ἐποίησεν may envision formless matter rather than nothingness as the starting point.

Summary. No generation of gods is found in the Old Testament. Yahweh has always existed and is utterly outside the cosmic process. The complete absence of sexuality in the God of Israel is in striking contrast to the crude creation stories of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan. Sources for the imagery used by the sacred writer may be found in these literatures, but not sources for his concepts. For Israel the polarity of the sexes belongs to creation alone, not to the Deity; this teaching acts as a strong counter-statement to the Canaanite fertility cult of Baal. There is no real struggle with monsters for Israel's God; they are vanquished or continually kept in subjection without effort. Finally, "first creation" is being continued through history and points to the great renewal of "second creation," i.e., cosmic regeneration and re demption.

In the New Testament. The word used regularly in the New Testament to describe God's creative activity is κτίξω. It is equivalent to the Old Testament bārā'. There is a continuity and development of the Old Testament ideas in the New Testament. The world and time, in their totality, were brought into being by God (Rom 1.20; Heb1.10; Rv 4.11). The logos of Jn 1.1–18 is a profound development of the personified Wisdom of Prv 8.22–30 and the word of God of Is 55.10–11 especially. The linking of creation and redemption as two aspects of the same divine activity is carried forward from Deutero-Isaiah and the Wisdom literature (e.g., in Heb 1.2–3). The new creation of Is 65.17; 66.22 is earnestly yearned for in Rom8.19–25 and is already here through Christ (cf. 2 Cor5.17; Eph 2.10, 15).

Iconography. Needless to say, the representation of the work of creation in any medium of art is difficult. How can the artist depict in one picture the production of the cosmos from nothing? The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the Biblical account describes this as taking place in six separate acts, on the six days of creation, and not by any gesture of God but by His word. Yet because of the importance of the subject and its dramatic possibilities, the attempt has often been made, sometimes with considerable success. Since the New Testament depicts Christ as the Word of God and speaks of creation having been accomplished through Him, the Creator is sometimes represented with the Christnimbus. The various works of creation are sometimes represented as successive scenes, sometimes in a circle around the Deity. Two of the best-known creation scenes are those of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel (1508–12) and of Raphael in the Loge of the Vatican (1516–18).

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963), from a. van den born, Bijbels Woordenboek 442–449. h. junker, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:466–470. p. heinisch, Theology of the Old Testament, tr. w. g. heidt (Collegeville, Minnesota 1950). j. l. mckenziez, The Two-Edged Sword (Milwaukee 1956) 72–89, 90–108. h. frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion (New York 1948; Torchbooks 1961). g. von rad, Old Testament Theology, tr. d. m. g. stalker, (New York 1962–) 1:136–151, 446–453. t. mouiren, The Creation, tr. s. j. tester (New York 1962) 30–56. c. stuhlmueller, "Theology of Creation in Second Isaias," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 21 (1959) 429–467. r. w. gleason, "Creation in the Old Testament," Thought 37 (1962) 527–542. l. legrand, "La Création, triomphe cosmique de Yahvé," Nouvelle revue théologie 83 (1961) 449–470. Iconography. l. rÉau, Iconographie de l'art chrétien, 6 v. (Paris 1955–59) 2.1:65–76. f. ceuppens, Quaestiones selectae ex historia primaeva (3d ed. Rome 1953). h. renckens, Israel's Concept of the Beginning, tr. c. napier (New York 1964). c. hauret, Beginnings: Genesis and Modern Science, tr. j. f. mcdonnell (2d ed. Dubuque 1964). t. schwegler, Die biblische Urgeschichte (2d ed. Munich 1962).

[e. loveley/

h. j. sorenson]

2. THEOLOGY OF

The understanding of creation has had a long and continuous evolution in the history of Christian dogma. Primitive patristic theology did little more than reflect the scriptural point of view: creation is a fundamental point of faith and of a religious world-picture. In the centuries that followed, Christian philosophers and theologians tried to penetrate more deeply the content of that truth. They gave their syntheses, depending on their concern, an apologetical, a philosophical, or a catechetical emphasis. For the truth of creation, standing as it does at the beginning of religious history, illuminates the very nature of God and the purpose of His interventions in time. It clarifies the fact that God is love and that from beginning to end, from creation through Redemption to the completion of all things in Christ, God continues to love all His creatures and the world freely, with abandon, simply because He is what He is. The Church's teaching on creation comprises the following theological truths [Vatican Council I: cap. 1, De Deo rerum omnium creatore (H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. A. Schönmetzer 3001–03, 3021–25)].

Distinct from Creator. It is a fundamental tenet in the Judaeo-Christian tradition that the world is totally distinct from God, its creator. God is not part of the world. He is not just the peak of reality. Between God and the world there is an abyss. What is not God is the work of God. In stating that there is no middle term between "to create" and "to be created" revelation puts God infinitely above his works.

God is the "wholly other." The Church recalls this when it teaches that God is infinite, unique, simple, immutable; when it says that God is distinct from His creatures in a manner that allows each to keep its own complete proper reality, that which it is at its deepest point. Hence, it is necessary to reject all forms of pan theism, of emanationism that would attempt to establish a continuity between God and creatures. One must deny all dualism that seeks to introduce a third being between Creator and creatures (see manichaeism). One must eliminate preexisting matter. God alone is uncreated. He is absolutely apart, totally different from all reality, which exists only by the active presence of the transcendent God.

This distinction between God and His work—that between infinite and finite or pure act and composed being—is seen as singularly striking if one considers that the divine act of creating is absolutely free. The work of the Creator is in no way indispensable to Him.

Sacred Scripture expresses this distinction also by stressing God's sanctity in the face of man's blemishes and sins, His light in the face of man's darkness. Scripture notes especially the impressive stability of Him who had no beginning and remains the same, while man is changing and fragile. The distinction between Creator and creature leads one to the essential mystery of creation: one is dealing not with the activity of a God who, being of one body with the world, expands or degrades Himself in giving Himself, but with a perfect being who, autonomous with relation to His work as only the infinite can be, in the divine act of creating performs an act of pure liberality.

Produced from Nothing. Material realities and spiritual realities have been and are being produced from nothing by God according to the totality of their being. To be created is to be not of itself but from another. It is to be non-self-sufficient. This means that deep within itself it is in a condition of radical need, of total dependence. This is to be before God "as though one were not," i.e., to stand before Him without autonomy. It means to accept the fact that the world has no reality except what the Creator thinks and wills. This becomes even more striking when one recalls that God had no recourse to previous matter nor to any instrument in creating. The world owes all to Him alone. This is what the expression creatio ex nihilo underscores. It is evidently only a way of talking; for "nothing" has no existence and never had. One cannot bring forth reality from the absence of reality. All the expression really does is to exclude any creature from escaping its creatural dependence, and the world from emanating from God in a manner in which some systems of the past have misconstrued God's transcendence.

The created universe owes to God more than its mere existence; it owes to Him all that it is, its nature, its purpose as well as its origin. In God the universe finds its exemplary and final as well as its efficient cause.

The creature, which has its very existence from God, is in a state of total dependence that does not cease. Since it is entirely from Him, it would cease to be if it were in any way withdrawn from His dominion. At every moment God sustains his creature in being, enables it to act, and draws it toward its final end.

Out of Love. The world is the work of an inexpressibly wise and loving Creator, who produced all things by His omnipotence and with an absolutely free will. To believe in creation is to see Someone behind all things. It is to explain things themselves from an inner view—it is to see the world as a gift. One knows the inner life of God from the confidences He made to His chosen people and from the message of the Savior. The doctrine of creation is linked to what revelation tells of the complete spontaneity of the activity of Yahweh. As the election of Israel was completely free, so too is creation.

To create is above all to love. This love in no way depends on its object but rather brings it about completely. To know that God creates man is to know at that point that man does not have to be lovable to be loved. To know man is created is to know that man is loved by a love whose gratuitousness surpasses the most beautiful of human actions. In believing in creation man dares to affirm that all things rest on a "heart."

This absolutely initial spontaneity, which is the source of all reality existing outside it, is also what gives purpose to this reality. The universe receives its entire created reality from the solely efficacious intention of God, who has freely willed to communicate and show forth his glory (CCC 293).

This world is not the result of chance, but of God's love. It is not moving aimlessly, but toward God, to be with God, not for the increase of his beatitude but for the bestowal of his goodness on his creatures (Dei Filius 1). God is the source of being, the source of supernatural life through the Holy Spirit, and the source of bodily life to the dead through the resurrection (CCC 298). The doctrine of creation, therefore, and that of redemption mutually illuminate each other in clarifying all that glorifies God and manifests His all-powerful love.

Creation and Redemption. All things subsist "in the Son," but they depend on the three Divine Persons as one sole creative principle. By linking the work of creation to that of salvation, the Old Testament prepared the way for the New, which introduced Christ and thus the Blessed Trinity into the total picture of the divine action in this world. Scripture compels one to say that it is essential to the Christian doctrine of creation to face the mystery of the Trinity. Christ is presented as mediator already in creation, and not only in the work of Redemption (see god (son)).

The Old Testament tells about the liberality of the Creator of the world; and St. John characterizes Him simply: He is love. From the Old Testament one knows that the author of this world is Someone. But knowing that He is triune, one understands a little better what His personal life is. The Old Testament demonstrates His interest in His work; the incarnation and Redemption help one to see more and more the depth of that love.

The New Testament draws its inspiration from the manifestation of the all-powerful benevolence of God in the Person of Jesus. The Christian community understood that the divine self-giving, which is the principle of the inner life of God, is also the principle of the personal engagement of God in the destiny of His work. Thus when St. Paul and St. John speak of Him "in whom all was made," they are not thinking of an intermediary in the gnostic or Neoplatonic sense, but of Him who gathers both extremes in Himself.

The work of creation is common to all three Persons, and Christ is not mediator in it in the same way as in the Incarnation, where the Person of the word alone assumes the human nature. Between creation and Redemption there is a distinction, but the two are related. Each makes the other more intelligible. One comes to know better who the Creator is by knowing the Redeemer. One better understands the gratuitousness of the Redemption when he realizes that it has for its object all those things that God in His initial benevolence created out of nothing.

Secondary Causality, Providence, Time. God, the master of the universe, guides and governs all things by His providence. Things are not eternal, but had a beginning in time.

The world, brought about by the active presence of God, is not an inactive world. It was not made complete from the beginning. Along with existence each creature receives from God the ability to act, and it is because of Him that it actually does so. Through their activity beings endowed with the power to know and to love become more and more what they are; they become themselves by collaborating with the work of their Creator. Other creatures, endowed only with a transient activity, act upon each other in a common and immediate dependence on the creative action. The divine causality is not simply a point of departure in a series of causes. God is active at the heart of every action because He is not another created agent, but one who gives to each creature the power to act as well as the nature that is the principle of the action.

The universe, then, receives from God a dynamic structure, an intercausality behind which lies the Creator at every turn. The world constitutes a hierachy of beings that collaborate in an active way with the manifestations of the divine liberality revealed to men in a special way in the Lord Jesus.

The world at every moment of its existence is as much dependent on God as at the moment of its creation. It is constantly being created. The mystery of creation is just as rich in actual reality at the present moment as at the first moment of the world's origin. The essential point in the creature's condition is that it owes its whole reality to the goodness of God. The creature, whose reality is subject to duration, receives from the Creator in a continuing manner.

God not only gives duration to creatures. He intervenes actively in the orientation of the universe. He does not limit Himself only to conserving the universe; He also guides it by His providence. Faith in the active presence of Him on whom the universe radically depends leads one to conceive this universe as guided toward its goal by the One who never ceases to love it first. The universe, therefore, has direction; its path leads only one way. To accept the mystery of creation is to profess this optimistic view: the world, far from being absurd or unintelligible in its future, is good because it is moving toward a definite manifestation of Love. The revelation of the fact of Redemption, which unveils the extent of the creative goodness, teaches that the world is marked by the mystery of Jesus and that the eternal kingship of the Lord is in preparation.

Goodness of God. The purpose of the universe is the glory of God, i.e., the communication of His goodness, which is realized and will be ever more marvelously realized until the end of time through Christ Our Lord.

It is as impossible for man to grasp adequately the activity of God the Creator as it is for man to grasp God Himself. For the creative activity is identified with the Creator. The first result of human creativity is the completion of the human creator himself. God does not, however, complete Himself by acting. With a sovereign autonomy, He is, in fullness. He alone acts solely and directly by His existence, without any preexisting matter, without any instrument, without the intermediacy of faculties. His creative activity alone establishes the contact that is so profound and absolutely immediate between the being of Him who acts and the entire reality of that which receives.

The God who is Father, Son, and Spirit creates through the unity of the divine nature, but a nature that would not be what it is were it not the nature of a Triune God; and the same is true of the creative activity. God could not love His creatures from any other motive or design than those that come from Himself. He would not love His creatures as He does were He not Father, Son, and Spirit. He loves in such a way, in fact, that He brings about an encounter between the uncreated and the created in the ultimate realization of the unity of all things in Jesus the Lord. The divine action of creating will progress toward this definitive completion, this ultimate self-communication. From this fulfillment one might well begin His meditation on the Creator. With a better understanding of Jesus the Lord, one better discovers the dimensions of His kingdom, the final stage of God's glory. It is by contemplating the Lord Jesus at the term of creation as well as at its origin that one has a greater understanding of the liberty, might, and wisdom of Him who first loved it.

Creation and Evolution. The 19th and 20th centuries saw the rise to prominence of evolutionary world views, both physical (Darwin) and intellectual/spiritual (Hegel). Darwin's theory of evolution was generally regarded as challenging the Christian doctrine of creation on two points. First, it proposed an account of creation incompatible with a literal reading of the Book of Genesis. Second, it opposed the idea that God created fixed species, incapable of mutation into other species. The first challenge prompted the Church to articulate anew its understanding of the proper reading of Scripture. The truth given by God in revelation cannot conflict with the truth of things, known in part to scientific reason. Theologians thus began to emphasize the spiritual or theological meaning of Genesis 1, rather than insist on its historical accuracy. The Catholic response to Darwin's second challenge is enshrined in Pius XII's Humani generis (see also CCC 366). In terms of matter, man may have antecedents in lower forms of animal life. The human soul, however, cannot be explained in terms of such antecedents—or, indeed, in terms of any purely material cause. John Paul II likewise indicated that Catholic teaching does not object to the idea of evolution, but only to those evolutionary theories that attempt to explain man in material terms alone ("Discourse to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences," Oct. 22, 1996). Faced with the facts of physical evolution, the doctrine of creation proclaims that the ultimate origin of all things is God and that God is the immediate cause of all spiritual reality. The question of the relation between material and spiritual creation became prominent in the late twentieth century, in part through the work of Teilhard de Chardin.

A further challenge to the classical doctrine of creation came from various philosophical and historical theories of intellectual or spiritual evolution, inspired by hegel. In such views, evolution is the law not only of the material world but also of all distinctively human aspects of life. Human consciousness, human society, and human knowledge are all evolving. Thus to understand something one asks not what it is or where it came from, but what it is becoming. Catholic theologians did not in general accept such theories; however, they did begin to emphasize the teleological aspect of creation. The doctrine of creation concerns not only the origin of all things that are except God, but also the completion of the creation process. The Christian tradition frequently referred to Christ, the God-man, as the high point of creation. Thus the tradition offered clear warrant for connecting the doctrines of creation and Christology. Some theologians in the late twentieth century postulated a form of the Scotistic doctrine that God would have become man even if man had not sinned, because the Incarnation is necessary for the completion of creation. Others held to the Thomistic approach, and denied the absolute predestination of the Incarnation. But for both groups, the understanding of creation began to center around such Scripture texts as Col. 1:16: "all things were created through him and for him."

See Also: causality; causality, divine; contingency; glory of god (end of creation); temporal values, theology of; trinity, holy; creation, articles on; god, articles on.

Bibliography: j. brinktrine, Die Lehre von der Schöpfung (Paderborn 1956). m. flick and z. alszeghy, Il creatore: L'inizio della salvezza (2d ed. Florence 1961). r. guelluy, La Création (Paris 1963). t. l. handrich, Creation: Facts, Theories, and Faith (Chicago 1953). h. e. hengstenberg, Sein und Ursprünglichkeit: Zur philosophischen Grundlegung der Schöpfungslehre (Munich 1958). a. m. henry, ed., God and His Creation, tr. c. miltner (Chicago 1955). t. mouiren, The Creation, tr. s. j. tester (New York 1962). w. b. murphy et al., God and His Creation (Dubuque 1958). m. schmaus, Gott der Schöpfer (his Katholische Dogmatik 2.1; 6th ed. Munich 1962). p. schoonenberg, God's World in the Making (Pittsburg 1964). a. g. sertillanges, L'Idée de création et ses retentissements en philosophie (Paris 1945). p. boehner, "On the Production of Creatures," Studia Theologica Supplement (New York 1948) 3:3174–86. c. vollert, "Creation," ibid. 3164–73. r. a. redlon, "St. Thomas and the Freedom of the Creative Act," Franciscan Studies 20 (1960) 1–18. l. scheffczyk, Creation and Providence, tr. r. strachan (London 1970). k. l. schmitz, The Gift: Creation (Milwaukee 1982). c. e. gunton, Christ and Creation (Grand Rapids, Michigan 1992).

[d. j. ehr/eds.]