On creation

  1. Lemma
  2. Περί τῆς δημιουργίας
  3. Greek, Modern (1453-)
  4. Koutalis, Vangelis
  5. Modes of interaction > Antagonism - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Biblical interpretation - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Sources of knowledge (empiricism/rationalism)
  6. 26-02-2017
  7. Malevitsis, Christos [Author]. On creation
  8. Ευθύνη
  9. Plato - first cause - world creation - Genesis, Bible
    1. <p>Malevitsis, Ch. [Μαλεβίτσης Χ.] (1995). Περί τῆς δημιουργίας. <em>Εὐθύνη</em>, <em>283</em>, 357-359.</p>

    1. The author sets out with the assertion that the question of the creation of the world can be approached only by philosophy and religion. From both angles, there is a common point of departure: God, the One, or Matter. In philosophy, the first cause of creation is not a person. Creation is the work of a principle which can be grasped by reason. By contrast, in religion, and more particularly in the Bible, the world was created by a person, a free creator without any external motive. Creation is enacted by spirit, not by reason, or much less so, by logic. This is the reason why it is pointless to try to reconstruct the stages of the creation of the world, as described in the Bible, in terms compatible with scientific logic.

      Between philosophy and religion, according to Malevitsis, encounters do actually take place, because they border one another. Between science and religion there is no such possibility, and a conflict between them could not have any meaning at all, because they do not border one another. Science reserves no space for myths. The biblical narrative, seen strictly as a historical description, is indeed mythical. Regarded in its essence, however, i.e. as a sacred history, it cannot be termed mythical, since it preserves verifiable spiritual events, rendering both the created world and the actions of the human beings living in this world meaningful. As for the question of creation, only the poetic philosophy of Plato, who utilized myths in order to save phenomena that rational thinking is incapable of saving, can meet biblical religion. Still, this is nothing more than an encounter on the borderline.