God’s Eternity in Creation in Augustine’s De Genesi ad Litteram
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphil.2025.sp.iss.07Keywords:
Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, eternity, creation, GenesisAbstract
For Augustine, eternity holds a special significance, because understanding this concept correctly enabled him to understand God as he truly is: eternal, stable, unchangeable. For this reason, eternity is a key point in understanding how God created all things. God is eternal, and yet he created a world that is not eternal. How is this possible? Augustine attempts to answer this question, inter alia, in his extensive commentary on Genesis, De Genesi ad Litteram. Following the first chapter of Genesis, Augustine presents God as the eternal being who speaks, acts, and knows everything, but who in no way diminishes itself in the process of creating the caelum et terram. This paper aims to present specifically the way Augustine understood divine eternity in the creation process.
References
1. Brachtendorf, Johannes. “De Genesi ad litteram 1: Himmel und Erde, Licht und Finsternisder erste Schopfungstag.” In Augustinus De Genesi ad litteram. Ein Kooperativer Kommentar, ed. Johannes Brachtendorf and Volker Henning Drecoll, 73-101. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
2. Brachtendorf, Johannes. “Einleitung.” In Augustinus De Genesi ad litteram. Ein Kooperativer Kommentar, ed. Johannes Brachtendorf and Volker Henning Drecoll, 1-42. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
3. Cameron, Michael. “Augustine and Scripture.” In A Companion to Augustine, ed. Mark Vessey and Shelley Reid, 200-214. Malden: Blackwell, 2012.
4. Christian, A., William. “The Creation of the World.” In A Companion to the Study of St. Augustine, ed. Roy W. Battenhouse, 315-342. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979.
5. Dodaro, Robert, Cornelius Mayer and Christof Müller, eds. Augustinus-Lexikon. Basel: Schwabe, 1986-.
6. Fitzgerald, D. Allan, John Cavadini, Marianne Djuth, James J. O’Donnell, Frederick Van Fleteren, eds. Augustine Through the Ages. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
7. Gilson, Etienne. The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine. Translated by L. E. M. Lynch. Providence: Cluny, 1988.
8. Knuuttila, Simo. “Time and Creation in Augustine.” In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, ed. David Vincent Meconi and Eleonore Stump, 2nd edition, 102-120. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
9. Plato. Timaeus and Critias. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.
10. Pollmann, Karla. “Augustine, Genesis, and Controversy.” In Augustinian Studies 38, no. 1 (2007), 203-216.
11. Saint Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Pine-Coffin. London: Penguin, 1961.
12. Saint Augustine. On Genesis. Translated by Edmund Hill. New York: New City Press, 2017.
13. Saint Augustine. The City of God. Translated by Henry Bettenson. Londra: Penguin, 2003.
14. Saint Augustine. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. Translated by John Hammond Taylor, vol. 1. Mahwah, Paulist Press, 1982.
15. Saint Augustine. The Retractations. Translated by M. Inez Bogan. Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 1968.
16. Sancti Aureli Augustini. De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim. Ed. J. Zycha. CSEL 28,1. 1894.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philosophia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
