Olena Syrtsova. Ex Nihilo or Ex Semetipso: the Problem of Creation at Origen, Hermogen and Tertullian in the Light of the Logic of Areopagite. Vol. 1. No. 1. 2016

Publication Details

Abstract

The paper examines the attitude of Origen towards the theological idea of the Creatio ex nihilo, developed by Tertullian in the polemic with Hermogen. Attention is attracted to the correspondence of this idea to the apocryphal and gnostic books, while the christian idea of the creation ex semetipso was deeply grounded and displayed in the treaty of Areopagite «De divinіs nominibus».

If we assume, that the Whole Being does not coincide in the extention of logical meanings with the Existing God, as the Essential of Being, it would implicate at least two conclusions: the first one, that either Being is greater than God, and includes in itself a certain empty volume, deprived of the God, or Being is lesser then God, and in this case the Existing God must hypothetically contain in Himself a certain non-being. So both logical models, as long as they reject the identity of God with the Whole Being, became interpretable as the implicite objections to the Completeness and Perfection of God. No less of an objection to the same definitions would be to admit that God, as the Essential of Being, did not have everything in Himself and had to create world out of something, that is not God, and is absent in Him, let it be named materia, some other being or nihil (nothing). But in the Existing God, as in the Essential of Being, everything is always present and exists in its ontological everlasting divine plenitude, and He creates everything from this plenitude.

The philosophical meontology of Areopagite is consistent with the monistic coherence of Christian teaching, according to which no ontological grounds could exist for the idea of the creatio ex nihilo.

Keywords

Creatio ex nihilo, creatio ex semetipso, katabole, evil, materia, Origen,Tertullian, Germogen, Areopagite.

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© Olena Syrtsova, 2016