In reading the chapter entitled Eschatology and Christology, Moltmann and the Greek Fathers, by Nicholas Constas in God’s Life in Trinity, I was introduced to an interesting concept that I would like to meditate on and record my thoughts. The chapter draws heavily on Basil of Caesarea’s work, the Hexaemeron, a series of homilies concerning creation.
The chapter suggests that we should think of creation as a form of theophany, even parallel to the incarnation, an embodiment of the Spirit in material form. We are not to see the creation as God, but a revelation of the transcendent God. We are not to worship creation as an idol, but to see in it characteristics of the eternal transcendent God. (Note from 2025: this sounds like panentheism, as promoted by Richard Rohr.)
When God declared creation “beautiful” (they refer to Gen 1:8 in the LXX, which doesn’t correlate with Gen 1:8 in my Bible. I assume they refer to God’s declaration that creation is “very good”) it refers not to the aesthetic beauty, but to the completeness and perfection of purpose in creation; creation will serve its purpose “beautifully” as it has been ordered and put together.
This is correlated with Ecclesiastes, and Solomon’s initial statement that “life is meaningless”. If one looks at the order of creation superficially, without a regard for its transcendent revelation of God, one only sees futility in its cycles of life and death, of struggle and suffering juxtaposed to times of happiness and ease. But when one sees its purpose, understands it as a revelation, an embodiment of God’s purpose, a manifestation of his Spirit, creation then takes on meaning, pointing us toward a future of hope, rather than a cycle of futility
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