I wonder what comes into people's minds when they hear the word creation. If you're a Christian I'm pretty sure that most folks would think of the opening chapter of Genesis, which indeed the Good News Bible entitles "The Story of Creation". But then when you read Genesis 1, what then comes into your mind?
If you're American, turns out evolution comes to mind. And in light of Pope Francis' recent comments that evolution and the Gospel are not contradictory, maybe it's time I set out (yet again) what I think about all this.
Evolution, of course, is one of those issues that plague Christians in America. Because we invest it with so much crappy science to begin with.
When I say evolution I do not mean by it some naturalistic positivistic science -- as if nature and science are all that is. That's crappy science. And crappy philosophy. (Not to mention heretical Christian faith.)
The "issue" is so contentious in America that it would be best called The Evolutionary War. It's a life-or-death struggle for many. And some have gone so far as to question the faith of those of us who are Christian and embrace evolution.
The first shot fired in this particular cultural conflict was the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, but the war soon shifted to the US, where it fizzled down over the next 75 years as the Genesis literalists -- the so-called "creationists" -- made public fools of themselves, not least in the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 (memorably made into that great Spencer Tracy film Inherit the Wind).
But recently, the battle has recommenced with a vengeance, with the anti-evolution forces now having both a traditional "hard" wing, those who stubbornly cling to a 6000 year-old earth and reject entirely Darwin's well-demonstrated mechanism of natural selection; and a new, "softer", more science-friendly wing, those who advocate what is known as the theory of "Intelligent Design". Needless to say, this war, like most wars, is a war that should never have been fought, and is only sustained by zealots from both sides, the notorious Oxford professor Richard Dawkins being the most belligerent commander of the anti-creationist forces that are hell-bent on a scorched earth strategy against Christianity and religion as such.
On the other hand, folks in the UK and in physics circles probably think cosmology when I say creation.
In other words, these folks are more likely to think of the origin of the entire universe rather than of just the earth and human beings. I am sure that you've all heard of Einstein and the theory of relativity, and of the physicist Stephen Hawking and ideas such as the Big Bang, black holes, and perhaps even the latest mind-boggling speculations on so-called "string theory" (which I won't try to explain to you because it would give us all severe migraine!). Most of the warfare in cosmology, I am happy to say, seems to take place among cosmologists themselves rather than between scientists and believers. Me, when I read about the latest astronomical discoveries, see extraordinary color photographs of stellar phenomena zillions of miles away, or get an update from a doctoral student friend about work on the new super-duper particle accelerator being built in Switzerland -- which runs experiments that take us back very close to the moment of the Big Bang -- I just gawp in wonder at the world.
Maybe some others think environment when I say creation, though I'm never sure how many.
It's that time of year -- harvest festival time! -- when we rightly turn our attention to "the fruits of creation" -- to sun and soil, to the crops of gardener and farmer, to their "ploughing, sowing, reaping", and to whatever local farms and shops are left. Harvest services are also a time when we remember "the hungry and despairing", those whose crops have failed due to drought, or been overwhelmed by flood, or who in the Global South continue to get a scandalously raw deal by American and European bankers and financiers; time also to be disgusted with Western leaders with their broken promises of reducing or cancelling Third World debt, as well as their inaction over protectionist First World agricultural subsidies and tariffs. "Feed the World", we sang one Christmas, in retrospect rather over-optimistically, as upbeat tears of emotion have turned to cynical cries of rage.
Still others might rightly think ecological crisis, though I fear this is the smallest group of all.
But let's be honest here: The visible, tangible onset of global warming and climate change, about which some right-wing fools with interests to defend remain in denial -- "It's a liberal conspiracy!" they cry -- yet the results of which were brought catastrophically home to folks in California this year. In this global context the word creation begins to look like a sick misnomer, as human beings, called to be stewards of creation, become engineers of de-creation, as we work to turn God into a liar, complacently undermining his promise that "never again will a flood destroy the earth" (Genesis 9.11). Think of England's flooding problems in Yorkshire.
So, as I count them, these are our choices: Evolution, cosmology, the environment, harvest yields and ecological doom. We may think of any of these things when we hear the word creation, but -- to get to the point -- none of them, in fact, is the essential note that should sound when Christians hear the word creation. When Christians hear the word creation, the first sound that should ring, sing in our minds is grace. Creation is grace! And that's because creation, in Christian teaching, is an act of sheer divine generosity. Out of nothing, and not for any reason but only from love and for love, God, the "maker of heaven and earth" (as the creeds put it) creates a world.
God doesn't need a world, as if the world fills a gap in God's being, as if God would be the less without a world, or as if God were under obligation or constraint to create. On the contrary, if God did not make a world, God would still be the same God, no less the God that God eternally is in beauty and glory as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That God creates is not a law of nature. It's a completely free and gratuitous decision and act. And, what's more -- what creationists don't get -- "Creation isn't a [scientific] theory of how things started" -- however close we ever get to the moment of the Big Bang, it will tell us absolutely nothing about creation -- rather creation is a way of seeing everything that is in relation to God, not only back then but always and forever.
See, creation is a confession of faith, not an explanation of the world.
What you see is there because God. That is what I mean when I say creation.
What's more: What you see is there because God chooses it should be there. That is the full idea of what I mean by creation.
Creation for me is the most exhilarating thought. It's what keep my curiosity abuzz in genetics, in geology, in biology, in anatomy, in physics, in astronomy. Because when I say creation, I'm thinking not just "back then", but "right now", in the stuff of the world -- including my very self -- here and now.
Creation is the way we Christians confess that if God's attention slipped, for just one second, there would be nothing. Creation means that within every circumstance, every object, every person, God's action is going on, a sort of white heat at the center of everything.
Creation means that each one of us is already in a relationship with God before we've ever thought about it. It means that every object or person we encounter is in a relationship with God before they're in a relationship of any kind with us. And if that doesn't make us approach the world with reverence and amazement, I don't know what will.
See, creation means grace.
God makes a space for and makes us.
Why?
Sadly, this is where Americans miss the boat. Because we're fighting each other.
Creation is a way of saying that God wants us to live and flourish with freedom and joy.
God creates a rich, intricate, green and growing world that we could never completely explore or explain were we to live a thousand years. And because creation is an act of divine generosity, an exercise in self-giving, an overflow of goodness which seeks only to bless, and in which God himself delights, so does the Church rightly teach that the appropriate response of faith is not just to acknowledge our absolute dependence on God, or even to live in gratitude to God -- though that is certainly true -- but, above all, to imitate God's lavish generosity and goodness and blessing in our own relationships, so that we might not only respond to God but also correspond to God, indeed become like God, which is what it means to be created in the image of God.
God becomes like us, so that we become like God. Think Colossians 1 or Psalm 8 here.
See, creation isn't "just" a doctrine. It's an ethic. Creation is how we should live and behave as the creatures we are made and meant to be. The great church father Irenaeus was once asked to define the "glory of God". "The glory of God", he answered, "are human beings fully alive". You and me, not only the apex of creation but the very glory of God: Wow!
That's grace. That's creation.