Beauty, Tragedy and New Creation: Theology and Contemplation in Cappadocian Cosmology
This article explores whether we can speak of an aggregate Christian cosmology or doctrine of creation constructed by the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa. While discouraging the possibility of identifying a perfectly contoured ‘system’ of Cappadocian co...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2016]
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| In: |
International journal of systematic theology
Year: 2016, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 7-29 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBC Doctrine of God NBD Doctrine of Creation |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article explores whether we can speak of an aggregate Christian cosmology or doctrine of creation constructed by the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa. While discouraging the possibility of identifying a perfectly contoured ‘system’ of Cappadocian cosmology, I argue that there are certain ‘first principles’ and doctrinal correlates shared by this triumvirate. More helpful is to approach their constructive theology of creation from the standpoint of its basic epistemological protocols of theologia, which lay down the ground rules for Christian language of Creator and creation, and theôria, the church's ‘sanctified intuition’ of the meaning of the world. Theôria, as ‘contemplation’ in the broadest sense, enables the Cappadocians to envision the world, through the lens of sacred history, as a theatre of tragedy and beauty, and as the matrix of the triune Creator's aspiration to bring about an ever-renewed creation. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-2400 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal of systematic theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/ijst.12136 |