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Creatio Ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1995 Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas James Noel Hubler University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, Other Classics Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Hubler, James Noel, "Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas" (1995). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 980. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/980 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/980 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas Abstract Creatio ex nihilo marked a major redefinition of the material cosmos by the Christian apologists of the late second century, Tatian and Theophilus of Antioch. Other scholars have properly assigned the origin of creatio ex nihilo to these thinkers, notably Gerhard May and David Winston, but the reasons for the teaching' s appearance remained unexplained. By examining the Classical philosophical views of matter, the challenge that Greek views of matter raised for the Christian message become evident. For Stoic, Platonist, and Peripatetic alike matter imposed the natural necessity of corruption upon the body. The moral limitations imposed by matter made a bodily resurrection seem offensive. Christian hopes for a resurrection seemed misguided both intellectually and morally. The Christian apologists of the late second century struck back by redefining matter as a creature of God, which he directed to his purpose. The religious claims of the Christian apologists signalled a major philosophical change. Within a century, Plotinus developed a rigorous monistic system of emanation within the Greek philosophical tradition. In his system, even matter was derived from the One. Nevertheless, because it was wholly indefinite, matter remained evil and the sage eschewed it. Augustine gave creatio ex nihilo its first careful philosophical consideration in the Christian tradition. Turning the valences of the Classical world on their heads, he argued that as something capable of being formed into good things, matter itself was good and a creature of the good God. The next major philosophical consideration of creatio ex nihilo in the Christian tradition came at the hands of Aquinas, who taught that creatio ex nihilo meant that nothing was presupposed to God's creative act, not matter, forms, natures, essences, ideas, laws of nature, or a hierarchy of being. The creature depended entirely on God's creative act. Despite the great dependence of the creature upon God, Aquinas taught that the creature still bore a genuine likeness to God, in his highly developed teaching of participation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Religious Studies First Advisor James F. Ross Keywords Thomas Aquinas, saint, religion and theology Subject Categories Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Ancient Philosophy | Christianity | History of Christianity | History of Religion | Other Classics | Philosophy | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/980 CREATIO EX NIHILO: MATTER, CREATION, AND THE BODY IN CLASSICAL AND CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY THROUGH AQUINAS }. Noel Hubler A DISSERTATION in Religious Studies Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1995 Supervisor of Dissertation / c - Graduate Group Chair Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COPYRIGHT JAMES NOEL HUBLER 1995 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tfs V mm s mein HI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. So many have helped me along the way, that now memory proves the poorest aide of all. First I would like to thank the Religious Studies Department as a whole, both faculty and students, for providing a sympathetic yet dynamic home for growth and learning. I would particularly like to thank Ann Matter for laboring so aggressively to see that it remains that way. I also thank her for the personal and academic guidance she provided along the way. I wish to thank my advisor, James Ross, for the many hours of intense discussion and supervision he provided over the years. As an intellectual challenge to his students, he knows no equal. I would like to thank Robert Kraft for his kind support shown throughout the years and the careful reading and welcome insight he provided this project. I am extremely grateful to Amy Ayres for the proof reading and suggestions she offered so willingly. I thank my sister, Kathryn Hubler for the careful copy-editing and encouragement that she performs with equal skill. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my wife,An, and children, Hannah, Samuel, and Nathaniel, who shared the burdens of student life with me. Their smiles and cheer are more than anyone could desire. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT CREATIO EX NIHILO: MATTER, COSMOS, AND THE BODY IN CLASSICAL AND CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY THROUGH AQUINAS J. NOEL HUBLER JAMES F. ROSS Creatio ex nihilo marked a major redefinition of the material cosmos by the Christian apologists of the late second century, Tatian and Theophilus of Antioch. Other scholars have properly assigned the origin of creatio ex nihilo to these thinkers, notably Gerhard May and David Winston, but the reasons for the teaching’s appearance remained unexplained. By examining the Classical philosophical views of matter, the challenge that Greek views of matter raised for the Christian message become evident. For Stoic, Platonist, and Peripatetic alike matter imposed the natural necessity of corruption upon the body. The moral limitations imposed by matter made a bodily resurrection seem offensive. Christian hopes for a resurrection seemed misguided both intellectually and morally. The Christian apologists of the late second century struck back by redefining matter as a creature of God, which he directed to his purpose. The religious claims of the Christian apologists signalled a major philosophical change. Within a century, Plotinus developed a rigorous monistic system of emanation within the Greek philosophical tradition. In his system, even matter was derived from the One. Nevertheless, because it was wholly indefinite, matter remained evil and the sage eschewed it. Augustine gave creatio ex nihilo its first careful philosophical consideration in the Christian tradition. Turning the valences of the Classical world on their heads, he argued that as something capable of being formed into good things, matter itself was good and a creature of the good God. The next major philosophical consideration of creatio ex nihilo in the Christian tradition came at the hands of Aquinas, who taught that creatio ex nihilo meant that nothing was presupposed to God’s creative act, not matter, forms, natures, essences, ideas, laws of nature, or a hierarchy of being. The creature depended entirely on God’s creative act. Despite the great dependence of the creature upon God, Aquinas taught that the creature still bore a genuine likeness to God, in his highly developed teaching of participation. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Monism: Egyptian and Milesian 1 Chapter 2. Matter in Plato, Aristotle, and Their Successors: Eternal realm of change or passing illusion 26 Chapter 3. Cosmogony and Material in the Near East, Biblical Texts, and Early Judaism 72 Chapter 4. Early Church: The origins of creatio ex nihilo 102 Chapter 5. Plotinus and Augustine: Evil and the generation of matter 127 Chapter 6. Being and Difference: Creatio ex nihilo and participation in Aquinas 156 Appendix Hieroglyph and Cuneiform, Texts and Transliterations 205 Bibliography 211 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1, Monism: Egyptian and Milesian In the sixth century B.C.E. in Miletus on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, Greek speculation about the origin of the world took a dramatic turn. Previously Hesiod1 and the near contemporaries Pherecydes2 and Akusilaos3 explained the origin of the world in terms of anthropomorphic genealogy. Breaking with tradition, the Milesian cosmologists, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes adopted from Egypt a single, divine, yet undifferentiated material source which produced the world by its own physical transformations and continued as an immanent force in the world. For Thales the source of the world and life was water; for Anaximander, the infinite (see below); and for Anaximenes, air. It is hard to overestimate the impact the new teaching had on
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