Search results for ex nihilo

In previous blog essays, I’ve offered reasons why Christians should reject the idea God creates from nothing. I’ve also hinted at an alternative doctrine of creation that embraces the positive elements of creatio ex nihilo but is not susceptible to the negative elements. It’s finally time to offer the basics of my alternative: creatio ex creation en amore (God always creates out of creation in love).

In my previous essay, I argued that the Bible supports the notion that God initially creates from something. It doesn't support creatio ex nihilo. Now I want to address two poor reasons some Christians have affirmed creatio ex nihilo.

I’m editing a ground-breaking book of essays on initial creation. Like most of the Christian theologians writing essays for this project, I think Christians need a doctrine of initial creation other than creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo).

Augustine’s beliefs about God and time have been highly influential in Western civilization, especially among Christians. Scholars often cite his beliefs about divine immutability and impassibility. But Augustine’s belief in a timeless God and waffling about the reality of time powerfully shaped the history of theology. The Confessions may be the most influential book from […]

I was recently invited by the Center for Christogenesis to give a paper. (Thanks, Ilia Delio, Robert Nicastro, and team!) It was part of the Center’s “Rethinking Religion in an Age of Science” online conference. Given the invitation, I took the opportunity to reflect on what precisely I’d like to see changed in religion. And […]

Chad Bahl and I contributed a chapter to a massive handbook on postconservative interpretation. The book is aimed at college students, and our task was to sketch out an open and relational vision. Here’s what we wrote… Open and Relational Hermeneutics Open and Relational Theology (ORT) addresses key questions about biblical inspiration, interpretation, inerrancy, authority, […]

My friend Ryan Patrick McLaughlin sent a series of questions and criticisms. I’ve responded to several in previous blog essays. This is the final essay in my series of responses. Ryan wonders about my view of miracles. He gives voice to questions I’ve heard from others, so I suspect my response will interest many. What […]

For more than a decade, I’ve argued that theists should reject the idea God creates something from nothing (creatio ex nihilo). I often explain why and offer an alternative view of God’s creating: creatio ex creatione sempiternalis in amore. You can find my arguments in the recently published T&T Clark Handbook on Suffering and the […]

The T&T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil has just been published. Editors Matthias Grebe and Johannes Grossl have an all-star lineup of writers contributing to this volume, a book with 80 chapters! Here’s a link. My contribution is called “Everlasting Creating and Essential Love.” To give you a taste of my […]

In his book The Future of Open Theism: From Antecedents to Opportunities (IVP Academic 2020), Richard Rice does a myriad of helpful things. He reports on the origins of open theology, describes contemporary debates among open theists, and looks at where open theism might move in the future. Rice rightly calls openness theology a “paradigm […]