Faith and Knowledge

Doctrine of Creation

“Establishment of order” is generally represented in two different ways. 1. Creation is associated with the image of a potter working clay into a recognizably ordered structure. 2. Creation concerns conflict with a series of chaotic forces.(dragon or another monster) (p. 217, McGrath)

The central issue relating to the doctrine of creation which had to be debated in the first period of Christian theology was that of dualism.(p. 217, McGrath) Irenaeus of Lyons opposed this idea, which argued for the existence of two gods: a supreme god(NT’s the redeemer God) and a lesser deity(OT’s God). First one is the source of the invisible spiritual world, and the other one is created the world visible, material things. Also, Manichaeism has a Gnostic worldview, it is strongly dualist. It sets up a fundamental tension between the spiritual realm(good) and the material realm.(evil) The dualist notion of a good realm of the invisible and spiritual, and an evil realm of the visible and material is excluded by the Council of Nicea(325).