1. Alister E. McGrath Theology: The Basics
Chapter 3 Creation
…Creator of heaven
and earth
Alister E. McGrath
Theology:
The Basics

2. Creation in the Old Testament
The imposition of order
God’s victorious conflict over chaotic forces
Nature is not divine

3. The concept of creation “out of nothing”
Gnosticism
The “demiurge” as inferior creator god
The economy of salvation
Creation ex nihilo
Plato: preexistent matter
Tertullian (ca )
Creation and dualism
Fourth Lateran Council (1215)

4. Implications of the doctrine of creation
Distinction between God and the creation
A critical world-affirming spirituality
God’s authority over the world
Human stewardship
The goodness of creation
Doctrine of sin (the “fall”)
Human beings in the image of God

5. Models of God as creator
Emanation
“light from light”
Construction
Ordering
Artistic expression

6. Humanity and creation: the “image of God”
The sovereignty of God
Accountability to God
Human correspondence to God
Augustine: human reason
John Polkinghorne: resonance
Image and relationality
C. S. Lewis ( )

7. Creation and natural theology
Thomas Aquinas (ca )
Causality
Likeness to God in the created order
John Calvin ( )
“sense of divinity” / “seed of religion”
Experience of and reflection on the ordering of the world
Knowledge of God through revelation
Emil Brunner ( )
Human nature as “point of contact” for revelation
Karl Barth ( ), Nein!
God’s sovereignty in revelation
Orders of creation

8. Creation and creationism
Young earth creationism
Old earth creationism
Intelligent Design
Theistic evolution

9. Engaging with a text The Belgic Confession, 1561
“We know [God] in two manners. First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, which is before our eyes as a most beautiful book, in which all creatures, great and small, are like so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God, namely, his eternal power and Godhead, as the Apostle Paul declares (Romans 1:20). All of these things are sufficient to convince humanity, and leave them without excuse. Second, he makes himself known more clearly and fully to us by his holy and divine Word; that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation.”