Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought (eBook)

The Beginning of All Things

OP Joseph Torchia (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
264 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
9781498562829 (ISBN)

Infos

This book assumes an interdisciplinary character, providing a window into the subtle relationship between faith and reason in early patristic thought and its relevance for forging the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. In so doing, it highlights the extent to which early Christian thinkers found a common ground with the Greek philosophical tradition.

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Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought: The Beginning of All Things explores the interface between philosophy and theology in the development of the seminal Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo. While its main focus lies in an analysis of first to third century patristic accounts of creation, it is likewise attuned to their parallelism with Middle Platonic commentaries on Plato's theory of cosmological origins in the Timaeus. Just as Christian thinkers sounded out the theological implications of Gn 1:1-2, the successors to Plato's Academy debated the significance of his teaching (Tim. 28b) that the world "e;came to be."e; The fact that both Genesis and the Timaeus address the "e;beginning of all things"e; served as a means of bridging the conceptual gap between the Greek philosophical tradition and a Christian perspective rooted in scriptural teaching. Plato's Timaeus and the doxographies it inspired thus provided early Fathers of the Church with the dialectical resources for explicating their distinctive understanding of creation as a bringing into being from nothing.

Autor

Joseph Torchia, O.P. is professor of philosophy at Providence College.

Inhalt

PrefaceIntroductionPart I: In the Beginning: Scriptural and Platonic Perspectives Chapter 1: A Scriptural Point of DepartureChapter 2: Plato on Cosmological OriginsChapter 3: Middle Platonic Responses Part II: The Shape of Things to ComeChapter 4: The Creation Account of Philo JudaeusChapter 5: Creation and Cosmos in the Apostolic FathersPart III: Forging the Doctrine Chapter 6: The Christian Platonism of Justin MartyrChapter 7: The Christian Philosophy of Athenagoras of Athens Chapter 8: Tatian of Syria: The ‘Stages’ of CreationChapter 9: Theophilus of Antioch: At the ThresholdChapter 10: The Alexandrian School Epilogue: Creation as ‘Beginning’BibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.4.2019
• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Bibelausgaben / Bibelkommentare
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Schlagworte: Christian Platonism • contingency of creatures • Cosmological origins • Creation Ex Nihilo • Fathers of Church • gegonen • Gn 1:1-2 • Middle Platonic doxographies • patristic theology • Theology of Creation • Tim. 28b
• ISBN-13: 9781498562829 / 9781498562829