RT Article
T1 A Theory of Creation Ex Deo
JF Sophia
VO 61
IS 2
SP 267
OP 282
A1 Longenecker, Michael Tze-Sung
LA English
PB Springer Netherlands
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1814272445
AB The idea that God creates out of Himself seems quite attractive. Many find great appeal in holding that a temporally finite universe must have a cause (say, God), but I think there’s also great appeal in holding that there’s pre-existent stuff out of which that universe is created—and what could that stuff be but part of God? Though attractive, the idea of creation ex deo hasn’t been taken seriously by theistic philosophers. Perhaps this is because it seems too vague—‘could anything enlightening be said about what those parts are?’—or objectionable—‘wouldn’t creating out of those parts lessen or destroy God?’ Drawing from Stephen Kosslyn and Michael Tye’s work on the ontology of mental images, I respond to the above questions by developing a theory on which God creates the universe out of His mental imagery.
K1 Creation ex deo
K1 creation ex nihilo
K1 Kalam Cosmological Argument
K1 mental imagery
DO 10.1007/s11841-020-00801-9