Creation

1. Creation • What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong

2. God the Creator and the Good Creation Paradise, by Sawai Chinnawong, http://www.omsc.org/art-at-omsc/sawai/genesis1-slide.html

3. Psalm 33 1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.Praise befits the upright.2 Praise the Lord with the lyre;make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.3 Sing to him a new song;play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4 For the word of the Lord is upright,and all his work is done in faithfulness.5 He loves righteousness and justice;the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,and all their host by the breath of his mouth.7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;he put the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.9 For he spoke, and it came to be;he commanded, and it stood firm.

4. Theism: emphasis on God as transcendant and immanent (Unlike Guthrie’s description which is more “hard theism”) Pantheism: everything is God (God as immanent) Worship of the creation is worship of the creator Panentheism: everything that exists is in God “God who is ‘all in all’, the only reality there is, made and continues to make room within God’s self for life different from God” Guthrie, 156 But what about the problem of evil?

5. What is distinctive in a Christian understanding of creation?

6. Genesis 1 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl

7. Who: The God of Israel and of Jesus Christ is the ultimate source and ruler of the universe. Call for humility: Recent Discoveries

8. Gen 1 from above for God’s glory (humans-for-God) Creator and Lord God’s deed The Mysterious God Gen 2 The near world with the Lord on the earth God for humans Parenting God Humanity’s story The near God Two Creation Stories

9. a. Creation is a Trinitarian gift: • The Spirit brooded over the face of the deep. Gen. 1.2 • By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of his mouth. Ps. 33.6 • All things were made through him (the Word) and without him was not anything made that has been made. John 1.3

10. God has given us the gift of partnership in God’s own creative and nurturing work. Male and female in the image of God Gen. 1:27: “in the image of God he created them” Gen. 1:28: Dominion over the earth given to both men and women. Mandate to be fruitful and multiply given to both women and men

11. “All are designed for goodness and when we recognize that truth it makes all the difference in the world.” Bishop Desmond Tutu What differences does this make?

12. Submission of an Visual Depiction of the Image of God (before February 3rd) “Upload to a dropbox account a visual depiction of something that to you represents the image of God. This can be a photograph, a sketch, an image of a historical work of art or icon, a photo of a sculpture, a still from a film, etc. Name your file with a brief descriptor of the content followed by your last name, such as Michelangelo Pieta, Brown. Go to dropbox.com and log in to the account Theo Anthro with the username kirsten.guidero@sckans.edu and the password theoanthro. Then upload your image to the folder entitled Images of God. Please do not wait until the last minute to do this, and be patient if your first attempt does not work, as multiple users may be trying to upload at the same time.”

13. Bishop Desmond Tutu on the Daily Show “We are fundamentally good.” (5) “Evil and wrong are aberrations.” (5) “We are tuned to the key of goodness.” (5)

14. c. God is continuously making new beginnings. Creation is not an event in the past, but a relationship in the present. (Ware, p. 45) Therefore God is not remote and distant, but is at the heart of all things.  d. There is only one God, who alone is Creator and Ruler of everything. ~God created Ex nihilo (out of nothing) vs. dualism: Manichaeism Gnosticism e. God created all things as an expression of God’s triune love By God’s free will As an expression of God’s love .

15. God is both transcendent, and immanent (Our Father who art in Heaven)

16. What: 2. Therefore the world and our creaturely life in it are good. Guthrie, 147 a. Creation is good. Because God made it and God preserves it. vs. dualism: • Manichaeism • Gnosticism • Platonic dualism

17. b.     Creation is good but not God Creation is contingent and dependent “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Heb. 1.3 Nothing in the created world is to be feared Nothing in the created world is to be worshiped.

18. God, the Creator All of creation as a hazelnut held in God’s hand. Rublev

19. God’s Creative Intent for Male and Female Humans were not meant to exist in isolation but in complementary relationships. Our sexuality is part of God’s pure and good creation. Our mutual interdependence is a good thing!

20. Gen. 2:18: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him.’” 1. Women are not the bane of man’s existence 2. ezer = help a. This word appears 21 times in the O.T. b. 17 of those refer not to a subordinate help but to a superordinate helper, to God (“My help [ezer] comes from the Lord.” Ps. 121.1-2) 3.  neged = meet a.  suitable b.  corresponding to

21. The Reversal of the cultural norm Only in the Biblical faith are men told to leave their family for their wives Gen. 2:24 “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they becomeone flesh.”

22. The Question of Order of Creation Gen. 1: 27-28 Man and woman were created simultaneously; both were given dominion and authority. Gen. 2: 20 Eve was created after Adam from his rib Is she inferior because she was created 2nd? Is she inferior because she was made from Adam’s rib?