The Diablogue Who is fearless enough to be wrong?

(This is a repost from my old blog)

There’s been a few times in my life when I’ve been asked to explain my thoughts on the Creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2, this series is an attempt by me to explain my interpretation of Genesis and the reasoning behind it. Its my prayer that I and all who read this may approach the subject with humility and faith looking to God for answers.

Growing up in the evangelical church I’ve always assumed that Christians have always seen the days of Creation as literal 24 hour periods and the creation story as a factual historical account. I assumed that church theology was unanimous on this right up until atheists and other ne’er-do-wells attacked Christianity with Darwinism. It really wasn’t until a couple years ago when I was introduced to theology and church history that I realized that Christianity has never been in total agreement on what exactly the time frame or the method of Creation was. Yet, amazingly enough this has never been an an issue of mandatory dogma in the Church. Lets look at a few of the early church fathers and their views on the days of Creation and its relation to the science of the day.To begin, lets consider Origen, an early church theologian. In his book Contra Celsus he responds to Celsus who is a critic of his an other Christians’ works. In book 6 chapter 60 Origen responds to Celsus’ comment: “By far the most silly thing is the distribution of the creation of the world over certain days, before days existed,” saying:

‘…we have treated to the best of our ability in our notes upon Genesis, as well as in the foregoing pages, when we found fault with those who, taking the words in their apparent signification, said that the time of six days was occupied in the creation of the world, and quoted the words: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”‘

Secondly lets look at an obscure theologian by the name of St. Augustine. There’s an excellent article here that gives a wonderful overview of Augustines treatise entitled The Literal Meaning of Genesis. Its really intriguing to a modern Christian like I, that while Augustine staunchly defines his interpretation of the Creation stories as literal, it is entirely different than what we now normally think of as “literal.” I strongly suggest you read the article, but to summarize Augustine makes several points:

1. The interpretation of the Creation stories is difficult and not at all obvious.
2. The interpretation of the stories needs to be fluid and account for new observations about our earth.
3. We should not make statements about what the bible says when it flatly contradicts what we know from observable facts.
4. Extra-biblical knowledge is important and even necessary for responsible interpretation.

St. Basil the Great had a slightly different view of science, but an important one as well. In his first homily of the Hexameron he addresses some of the finer points of cosmology from his day. He quite well frames and debates some common theories, but ends saying that since we will not know the fullness of the universe’s complexity lets not get bogged down in debating details like the philosophers:

Do not let us undertake to follow them for fear of falling into like frivolities; let them refute each other, and, without disquieting ourselves about essence, let us say with Moses “God created the heavens and the earth.” Let us glorify the supreme Artificer for all that was wisely and skillfully made; by the beauty of visible things let us raise ourselves to Him who is above all beauty; by the grandeur of bodies, sensible and limited in their nature, let us conceive of the infinite Being whose immensity and omnipotence surpass all the efforts of the imagination. Because, although we ignore the nature of created things, the objects which on all sides attract our notice are so marvellous, that the most penetrating mind cannot attain to the knowledge of the least of the phenomena of the world, either to give a suitable explanation of it or to render due praise to the Creator, to Whom belong all glory, all honour and all power world without end. Amen.

This is definitely a different approach than Augustine but yet they have a very similar underlying message: we may never know the exact details of the Creation, but we need not be afraid of new developments in science as we have the most important assurance of all in that “God created the heavens and the Earth.”This is an extremely small sampling of the various opinions on science and Creation held by the early church fathers, and I urge you to take a look at some other sources as well for more info. There are many fathers who believed in a literal 24 hour creation day, and others who interpreted the stories as metaphor for many other things. Simply put though, all these differing opinions are part of the extremely varied and beautiful pattern of historic Christianity.

See also:
Early Church Fathers on Genesis
Creationism & the Early Church (an extremely well researched work)
To be continued.