Zum Begriff der Schöpfung - theologisch, philosophisch

The paper begins with a consideration of the religious-historical context within which the biblical understanding of Creation is located – in the Canaanite, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian myths. We see that the biblical understanding was indeed influenced by these conceptions but altered them in a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie
Main Author: Schmidt, Josef 1946- (Author)
Format: Print Article
Language:German
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Published: Echter 2001
In: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Creation belief / Cosmology
IxTheo Classification:CF Christianity and Science
HB Old Testament
NBD Doctrine of Creation
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Creation myth
B Creation
B Schöpfungstheologie
B Genesis
B creation theology
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:The paper begins with a consideration of the religious-historical context within which the biblical understanding of Creation is located – in the Canaanite, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian myths. We see that the biblical understanding was indeed influenced by these conceptions but altered them in a characteristic fashion. Fundamental to the biblical perception was a faith in the historically powerful and ethically demanding God of Exodus and Mt. Sinai. Further theological developments led to the insight that such faith and trust are ultimately tenable only if the God who is their object is himself Lord both of history and of nature. Accordingly the formulation "creatio ex nihilo" reflects a consistent and logical stage of theological development (albeit a late one: 2 Mach 7:28). The logic of this theological development has important implications for contemporary, systematically-oriented philosophy of religion. The courage necessary for such trust and such ethical responsibility on the part of the human being can be explained philosophically as a postulate of "practical reason", in the sense of a belief in one God, maker of heaven and earth. Against the background of such a practical argumentation the central idea behind the cosmological argument for the existence of God gains renewed significance. Belief in a Creator God implies that the world is literally based upon "nothing". God then cannot be the "impulse" behind the Big Bang. The world's dependence upon God consists rather in the fact that God has given the world over to its own self-development. The world has been given itself – and given to itself. Such a belief in Creation accords with an evolutionary view of the world. The conflict between evolution and theology is not only regrettable but superfluous. Moreover the possibility of a teleological conception of the world arises, with freedom as its paradigm.
ISSN:0044-2895
Contains:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie