Creation and Creativity
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
“All creation takes its deepest being from Christ. Saint Dionysios the Areopagite described God as “beyond being” and therefore able to be “the being of beings.” Creation itself shines with the light of theophany, not because it is God, but because it is suffused with the love of God for it and for us.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)
“…there is an impassible chasm between the uncreated and created. The Fathers believed that the tri-hypostatic God (Trinity) is the only reality that has always existed: before space, before time, before any cosmological laws, before matter or antimatter, before anything. Besides God, nothing that exists in the cosmos has existed from all eternity; He “made them of things that were not” (2 Macc 7:28). Thus, every created thing is entirely contingent, existing only because God has willed and continues to will it into existence.” (Fr. Joseph Lucas)
“Some Christians in the modern age pit the creation accounts of Genesis against modern scientific explanations for the origins of the world and cosmos. I would point out that in the ancient Greek version of Genesis found in the Septuagint, the word used for “created” is related to our word for poetry. The creation story of Genesis 1 is a creative, poetic account, not a scientific one. God is an artist, a poet not a scientist. It is a narrative giving us spiritual insight into the creation of the universe. The early Church understood the Genesis accounts of creation as being a superior narrative compared to the various pagan myths for how the world began. Genesis doesn’t offer us a scientific explanation for the beginnings of the universe but rather offers its account which we accept in faith not as scientific fact. Even the New Testament tells us this: ‘Now faithfulness is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of unseen realities. For the ancients were commended for this. In faith we rationally perceive that the ages were composed by an utterance of God, so that the things that are seen have not been made from the things that are manifest’ (Hebrews 11:1-3).” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“How can we know God? The Creator Himself imparted to man the beginnings of wisdom and spirit, so that man might know Him and His will. Throughout our entire life, we are called to continually and ever more discover and know our Heavenly Father, to love Him, and to find our eternal blessings in Him. There is no creative work of any kind, whether in the realm of science, art, or other creative activity in the world, that is conceivable without that origin of reason and spirit. Through his faith, through higher intuitive comprehension, man begins to see and perceive God; with his inner hearing, man is capable of hearing Divine truth and love.” (Archbishop John Shahovskoy)
“Some years back, I sat in on a meeting between my bishop and a young man looking to attend seminary. After getting the bishop’s approval, he asked a wise question: “What should I be reading to prepare?” I was as interested in the answer as he was. “Read good literature,” was the answer. This advice came from a bishop who is both a scholar and a monk (Archbishop Alexander Golitsyn). Read good literature. This is not so much advice for the demands of seminary – it’s advice for the soul….Fiction that is only fiction can, at best, only entertain or distract. Only a fiction that reflects truth can inspire and illuminate.” (Father Stephen Freeman, Dr. Mary S. Ford)
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