Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:21:40.422Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Trinity, motion and creation ex nihilo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

By
Simon Oliver
Edited by
David B. Burrell ,
Carlo Cogliati ,
Janet M. Soskice  and
William R. Stoeger
David B. Burrell
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Carlo Cogliati
Affiliation:
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Janet M. Soskice
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
William R. Stoeger
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The doctrine of creation ex nihilo apparently distinguishes theological cosmology from ancient Greek conceptions of a universe which has no temporal beginning (as in Aristotle) or a cosmos which is formed from pre-existent chaos, the khora (as in Plato's mythic cosmology, Timaeus). While the theological doctrine of creation marks a significant break from ancient Greek cosmology, more recently some have argued for a congruence between creation ex nihilo and contemporary Big Bang theories and the notion that the universe had a temporal beginning in the form of a singularity.

Does Big Bang cosmology confirm the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and the teaching that ‘in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’? Numerous cosmologists seem to interpret Big Bang cosmology in a way which precludes the notion of creation and a creator. For example, some account for the Big Bang in terms of a fluctuation in a primal vacuum known as ‘quantum tunnelling’ from nothing, from which the universe expanded according to what is known as inflation theory. ‘Nothing’ is defined by the cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin as a state with no classical space-time in which the basic categories of physics – space, time, energy, entropy and so on – seem to lose their meaning. This utterly uncaused emergence of the universe from nothing apparently accounts for the universe's existence without reference to anything beyond the universe itself. The universe is simply a brute fact.

Type
Chapter
Information
Creation and the God of Abraham , pp. 133 - 151
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Paul, Copan and William Lane, Craig, Creation out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical and Scientific Exploration (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), pp. 17–19Google Scholar
Alexander, Vilenkin, ‘Creation of Universes from Nothing’, Physics Letters 117B (1982), pp. 25–28Google Scholar
Mark William, Worthing, God, Creation and Contemporary Physics (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), pp. 98–100Google Scholar
Vilenkin, , ‘Boundary Conditions in Quantum Cosmology’, Physical Review D 33:12 (1986), pp. 3,560–3,569Google ScholarPubMed
Vilenkin, , ‘Birth of Inflationary Universes’, Physical Review D 27:12 (1983), pp. 2,848–2,855Google Scholar
Alan, Guth, The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins (Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1997)Google Scholar
Isham, C. J., ‘Creation of the Universe as a Quantum Process’ in Russell, Robert John, Stoeger, William R. and Coyne, George V. (eds.), Physics, Philosophy and Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding (Vatican Observatory Publications, 2005), pp. 375–408.Google Scholar
Stephen, Hawking, A Brief History of Time (London: Bantam Press, 1988), pp. 140–141.Google Scholar
Stephen, Shapin and Simon, Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life (Princeton University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Joseph, Yciski, ‘Metaphysics and Epistemology in Stephen Hawking's Theory of the Creation of the Universe’, Zygon 31:2 (1996), p. 272Google Scholar
Kosman, L. A., ‘Aristotle's Definition of Motion’, Phronesis 14 (1969), pp. 40–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Oliver, Philosophy, God and Motion (London: Routledge, 2005)Google Scholar
James, Weisheipl, Nature and Motion in the Middle Ages, ed. Carroll, W. E. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University Press of America, 1985).Google Scholar
Velde, R. A., Participation and Substantiality in Thomas Aquinas (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 272–279.Google Scholar
Hans Urs, Balthasar, Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory, trans. Harrison, G., vol. iv (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994), pp. 325ff.Google Scholar
Balthasar, , The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, trans. Leiva-Kerikakis, E., vol. i (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1982), p. 461Google Scholar
Ward, G., ‘Kenosis: Death, Discourse and Resurrection’ in Gardner, L., Moss, D., Quash, B. and Ward, G. (eds.), Balthasar at the End of Modernity (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999), pp. 15–68, at pp. 44–45.Google Scholar
Balthasar, , Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory, trans. Harrison, G., vol. ii (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990), p. 268.Google Scholar
Balthasar, , Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, trans. Nichols, A. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1990).Google Scholar
Balthasar, , Theo-Logic: Theological Logic Theory, trans. Walker, A., vol. ii (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), pp. 180–181Google Scholar
Williams, R., ‘Afterword: Making Difference’ in Gardner, L., Moss, D., Quash, B. and Ward, G. (eds.), Balthasar at the End of Modernity (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999), pp. 173–179.Google Scholar
John, Milbank, Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon (London: Routledge, 2003).Google Scholar
Williams, R., ‘Balthasar and the Trinity’ in Oakes, E. and Moss, D. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 37–50, at p. 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Oliver, ‘The Sweet Delight of Virtue and Grace in Aquinas's Ethics’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 7:1 (2005), pp. 52–71.Google Scholar
Buckley, M., At the Origins of Modern Atheism (Yale University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
Isaac, Newton, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, trans. Cohen, I. B. and Whitman, A. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 939–944.Google Scholar
McGuire, J. E., ‘The Fate of the Date: The Theology of Newton's Principia Revisited’ in Osler, M. J. (ed.), Rethinking the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 271–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, A. R. and Hall, M. B. (eds.), Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton: A Selection from the Portsmouth Collection in the University Library, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 1962), pp. 89–156.
Thomas, Weinandy, Does God Suffer? (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), pp. 139–140Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×