Wednesday, 31 August 2005

Creatio ex nihilo

A few weeks back I argued that a commitment to the doctrine of creation does not entail any specific belief about whether or not the universe had a definite “beginning.” A recent book by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig presents the opposite argument: Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical and Scientific Exploration (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004).

2 Comments:

Tyler F. Williams said...

I haven't read the book you mentioned, though I would agree with you and argue on biblical grounds from Genesis 1 that creation ex nihilo is not necessary and more than likely not the best was to interpret Gen 1:1.

Ben Myers said...

Yes, I think you're right that the concept of "ex nihilo" shouldn't be read into Genesis 1. This kind of conceptuality is really foreign to the whole thought-world of Genesis 1.

Having said that, I certainly think that "ex nihilo" is a valid theological interpretation of the biblical witness as a whole (and the biblical witness to creation is obviously much more diverse than just the Genesis stories). But we should guard against confusing our theological interpretation with the texts themselves.

Post a Comment

Archive

Contact us

Although we're not always able to reply, please feel free to email the authors of this blog.

Faith and Theology © 2008. Template by Dicas Blogger.

TOPO