Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Martien E. Brinkman: Az igazvoltról és a gonoszról alkotott fogalmaink isteni transzcendenciája
Abraham van de Beek He Came to his Own On Christ's Ownership of Creation C hristian faith is about Christ. Christ is the very core of Christian belief. And thus the earliest form of the Creed is a simple Christological statement: ‘Jesus is Lord.’ This basic confession is extended by refering to his birth, his death and his resurrection. In all classical creeds the Christological section is their core. Soon, however, such Christological statements are preceded by an article about God the Creator. Nowadays, it may seem obvious to speak about God as Creator, but in antiquity that is not the case. The classical Greeks consider the world as being part of the Gods—or in more philosophical circles even as an expression of non being—because to them the material world consists of becoming and perishing. The world does not have a consistent being, and thus it participates in non-being. From such a perspective it is interesting to consider why it is that Christians so emphasized creation; even more so since Christ—as the focus of their faith-is said to have come as a judgment over the world. 1. Only a Creator is a true God We find the first extensive discourse on the Creator in Christian literature in Athenagoras’ Plea for the Christians. Athenagoras argues that the gods of the Greek have a beginning. Zeus, who is born from Saturn and Ouranos, has a beginning as well.1 It was common sense in Greek philosophy that what has a beginning has also an end. It is therefore Athenagoras’ argument that the gods of the Greek are not eternal. The gods are not being but belong to the sphere of becoming.1 2 They are part of the world of all phenomena that have an origin in time and an end in time. 1 ‘If Kronos is time, he changes; if a season, he turns about; if darkness, or frost, or the moist part of nature, none of these is abiding; but the Deity is immortal, and immoveable, and unalterable: so that neither is Kronos nor his image God. As regards Zeus, again: If he is air, born of Kronos, of which the male part is called Zeus and the female Hera (whence both sister and wife), he is subject to change; if a season, he turns about: but the Deity neither changes nor shifts about’ (A Plea for the Christians 22). See also Plea 17. 2 Athenagoras (Plea 6) assentingly quotes Plato: ‘Whatever is compounded can be dissolved.’ 2012/3-4 Sárospataki Füzetek 101
