Program / Course 8: God, Trinity, and Creation / Lesson 6.4
What you will learn
- Explain why the church taught that the material world is good and name the biblical and theological grounds for the teaching.
- Describe how the doctrine of the Trinity shapes the doctrine of creation: creation through the Word and in the Spirit.
- Explain the idea of creation as gift and the notion of participation.
- Describe how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions draw out the consequences for worship, the body and care for the world.
The big idea
Christian teaching holds that the physical world is good because a good God made it, and that this goodness is not cancelled by the fall. The Father creates through the Son, the Word, and in the Spirit, so creation is shaped from the start by the life of the Trinity. The Son’s taking of flesh confirms the goodness of matter, and the sacraments, the resurrection of the body and the new creation all depend on it. The traditions draw different consequences, but all reject the idea that matter is evil.
Key terms
- Goodness of creation
- The teaching, from Genesis 1, that the world is good because God made it. It is a created goodness, not equal to the goodness of God.
- Creation through the Word
- The teaching, from John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16, that the Father makes all things through the Son.
- Creation in the Spirit
- The teaching, based on Genesis 1:2 and Psalm 104:30, that the Spirit is present in creation as the giver of life.
- Participation
- Sharing in a perfection that belongs fully to another. Creatures have being by sharing in God’s being.
- Sacramental view
- The view that material things can be vehicles of God’s presence and grace.
- Stewardship
- The idea that humans are entrusted with care for creation, from Genesis 1:28 and 2:15.
- Resurrection of the body
- The Christian hope that the dead will be raised in a transformed physical existence.
- Docetism
- The early error that Christ only seemed to have a human body. From a Greek word meaning to seem.
Background
Genesis 1 says seven times that what God made was good, and at the end of the sixth day it was very good. The New Testament repeats the point: 1 Timothy 4:4 says that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. The church fathers pressed it against Gnostic teachers and Manichaeans who held that matter is evil or a prison. The Christian faith, they said, begins with a good Creator and a good creation, and when it goes wrong it is because of misused freedom, not the material nature of things.
The goodness of matter was tested by the Incarnation. Christians confessed that the Word became flesh (John 1:14), that Jesus was born, ate, suffered and died, and was raised bodily. The early Christians who denied the real body of Christ, called Docetists, were opposed by Ignatius of Antioch and others. The fathers argued that if the Son took flesh, flesh cannot be evil. Irenaeus said that the Son did not despise or avoid the conditions of human nature, but recapitulated in himself the long history of humanity.
The fathers also linked creation with the persons of the Trinity. Irenaeus called the Son and Spirit the two hands of the Father. Basil in his work on the Spirit saw the Father as the first cause of creation, the Son as the creative cause and the Spirit as the perfecting cause. Later theologians, like Augustine and Aquinas, said that the work of creation is common to all three, and that it is appropriate to attribute it to the Father. Whether one stresses the order of the persons or the common act differs in East and West.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Why matter is good
The first reason is the plain statement of Genesis: God saw that it was good. The second is the doctrine of creation from nothing, which means that matter comes from God, not from a rival power. The third is the Incarnation: God the Son took a body. The fourth is the hope of resurrection, the promise that bodies will be raised and the heavens and earth made new (Romans 8:21, Revelation 21:1). These together make the Christian view strongly positive about the physical.
This does not mean the world is as it should be. The Bible speaks of the creation groaning (Romans 8:22) and of the curse that followed the fall (Genesis 3:17). The tradition distinguishes between the goodness of created nature and the disorder introduced by sin. Evil is not a part of nature as God made it. The next module takes up how the church has thought about this.
Step 2: Creation and the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity gives creation a particular shape. The Father creates through the Son, who is the Word. John 1:3, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2 say that the world was made through him. The Spirit, who hovered over the waters in Genesis 1:2 and whom Psalm 104:30 describes as the one who renews the face of the earth, is the giver of life. So creation is not the work of a solitary power but of a God who is already a communion of persons.
Some theologians draw further conclusions. Because God is Trinity, God does not need the world for company or love, since love already exists in God. The world is not required to complete God. It is therefore a free overflow of divine love, a gift. Others add that the world bears a mark of its Maker: the Son, the Word, gives creation order and intelligibility, and the Spirit gives life and movement. These are suggestions drawn from the tradition rather than defined doctrine, and different thinkers state them differently.
Step 3: Gift and participation
A Christian view of creation as gift has been described in the language of participation. A creature does not have being from itself but receives it. As a mirror shows light it does not make, so a creature shows goodness it receives. The more fully a creature reflects the Creator, the more fully it is itself. Aquinas expressed this by saying that God is being itself and that all creatures have being by sharing in it.
Participation ties creation to worship. Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare the glory of God. Psalm 148 calls on sun, moon, sea monsters, fruit trees and children to praise the Lord. In the Eastern tradition, Maximus the Confessor wrote that each creature has a logos, an inner meaning in the divine Word, so that creation is a book to be read. In the West, Bonaventure wrote of creatures as vestiges of the Trinity. Both express the idea that the world is a sign as well as a thing.
Step 4: Consequences for life
Several consequences follow. The body is not a prison: Christians honor it, care for it and expect its resurrection. Work with the material world, from farming to craft, has dignity. Humans are to care for creation, which Genesis 2:15 describes as tilling and keeping the garden. In worship, bread, wine, water and oil can be taken up as signs, and Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant traditions see in this the basis of the sacraments.
The traditions emphasize different points. Orthodox writers such as Alexander Schmemann stress that the world is a sacrament of God’s presence to be received with thanksgiving. Catholic social teaching, as in Pope Francis’s letter Laudato Si’, stresses care for the earth as a common home. Reformed writers speak of all of life as lived before God and of the cultural mandate to develop creation. Some Protestants warn against seeing the physical as the means of grace in ways that go beyond Scripture. These are differences of emphasis within a shared affirmation.
- Where do I treat the body or the physical world as something less than good?
- What does it mean to receive food, work or nature with thanksgiving?
- How does knowing that the Son made the world change how I see it?
- Is there an area where I treat the world as a possession and not as a gift?
- How might the doctrine of resurrection shape care for the body now?
- Where do I see the difference between created goodness and the disorder of sin?
Examples
Thanksgiving at a meal
A family prays before a meal, thanking God for the food and for those who prepared it. The act expresses the Christian view that food is good and a gift, and that receiving it with thanks keeps it from becoming an idol or a mere resource. First Timothy 4:4 mentions thanksgiving in just this connection.
The Incarnation and Docetism
A teacher in the second century says that Christ only seemed to have a body, since a real body would be defiled. Ignatius of Antioch replies that Christ truly was born, suffered and rose. The church counted this reply as essential, because it kept both the real salvation of humans and the goodness of flesh.
Care for creation
A community plants a garden and shares its produce with neighbors. Whether they would describe it in these terms or not, they are acting on the idea that the world is both a gift to enjoy and a trust to keep. Laudato Si’ and many Protestant and Orthodox statements express such practices.
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching holds the world to be good, wounded by sin, and destined for renewal. The Catechism describes creation as a gift and a task. The sacramental principle holds that material signs convey grace. Laudato Si’ (2015) applies the doctrine to ecology.
Orthodox
Orthodox theology speaks of the world as created for communion with God and of the human being as priest of creation. Schmemann, in For the Life of the World, argued that the secular is a false category and that the world is meant to be received eucharistically. Orthodox hymnography often speaks of creation praising God.
Protestant
Protestants stress the goodness of creation and of ordinary vocation. A saying attributed to Luther holds that God milks the cows through the milkmaid. Calvin spoke of creation as the theater of God’s glory. Evangelical and Reformed traditions have stressed the cultural mandate and, more recently, creation care, though there is wide variety.
Critical and secular views
Some historians argue that Christian teaching on the goodness of matter fostered the rise of empirical science, by assuming that nature is ordered and worth studying. Others reply that the connection is overstated and that Christian history also contains hostility to the body. Environmental thinkers have debated whether the dominion language of Genesis 1:28 has encouraged exploitation. Christian scholars reply that the text speaks of care.
Why it matters
How a person regards the physical world shapes how they eat, work, rest, heal and die. The Christian claim that matter is good, made through the Word, and destined for renewal gives a base for these actions and answers old and new ideas that treat the body as a burden. It also prepares for the discussion of evil, since a view that matter is good has to give another account of why the world is damaged.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Christianity teaches that the physical world is evil and the spirit is good.
Correction: This is Gnostic and Manichaean teaching, which the church rejected. Christianity affirms the goodness of creation and the resurrection of the body. There have been ascetic and world-denying currents in Christian history, but they were not supposed to deny the goodness of matter.
Misunderstanding: If the world is good, there is no need for redemption of it.
Correction: The Bible says the creation was subjected to futility and groans for redemption (Romans 8:20 to 22). The world is good by nature but damaged by sin, and the hope is of renewal.
Misunderstanding: The Trinity has nothing to do with creation.
Correction: The New Testament says all things were made through the Son and the Spirit is present in creation. The tradition treats creation as the work of the Trinity, though the details of how to state this differ.
Misunderstanding: Dominion in Genesis 1:28 means humans may do what they like with the earth.
Correction: Most Christian traditions read dominion in the light of Genesis 2:15 and the care of God for his creatures, as responsibility and not exploitation. Critics argue that it has sometimes been misused.
Knowledge check
Give three grounds for the Christian teaching that matter is good.
Genesis 1 says God saw that what he made was good. Creation from nothing means matter comes from God, not from a rival power. The Incarnation means the Son took a body, and the hope of resurrection means bodies and the world will be renewed. Any three of these, with brief explanation, are correct.
How is the Trinity involved in creation?
The Father creates through the Son, the Word, as John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 say, and the Spirit is present as the giver of life, as in Genesis 1:2 and Psalm 104:30. The tradition holds that the work is common to the three, though it often attributes it to the Father by appropriation.
What is meant by participation?
It means that creatures do not have being or goodness from themselves but receive them by sharing in God, who has them fully. Aquinas held that God is being itself and creatures have being by sharing in it. Participation presents creation as gift and as a sign pointing to God.
Name one difference of emphasis among the traditions about the physical world.
Orthodox writers such as Schmemann stress the world as a sacrament received with thanksgiving. Catholic teaching adds the sacramental principle and care for creation, as in Laudato Si’. Reformed writers stress vocation and the cultural mandate. These are differences of emphasis within a shared affirmation that creation is good.
Think it through
- In what way might you see an ordinary object, such as bread or water, differently in the light of this lesson?
- What responsibilities follow from the claim that the world is a gift?
- How can a person honor the body without making it an idol?
Independent assignment
A psalm of creation
In your own notebook, write about 400 words. Read Psalm 104 and Psalm 148. List the parts of creation that each mentions and what each is said to do. Then write a paragraph linking one of the psalms to one of the ideas in this lesson, such as gift, the Word through whom all things were made, or the goodness of the body. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World An Orthodox account of the world as given to humans to be received with thanksgiving.
- Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read Book 5, chapters 1 to 2, on the flesh and the Word.
- Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read the early chapters on creation through the Word.
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Look in Book 2 for Lewis’s remarks on God and matter.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read Part I, Question 65, on the creation of corporeal creatures.
- 1 Timothy 4:4 Every creature of God is good.
- Colossians 1:16 By him were all things created.
- Psalm 148 Creation praises the Lord.
- Romans 8:21 The creature itself shall be delivered.