In the Beginning

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Having accomplished the work of creation, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Gen 1,31) This is the ultimate statement of Christianity (and Judaism, and, probably, Islam) about the world in God's sight. It is the basic conviction of theological aesthetics and its biblical ground. The word "good" might as well be read as "beautiful."

In the biblical narrative it became soon apparent, that this approach to the world is problematic. On the very next page of Genesis there came the Fall. In many theological traditions (mainly Western ones) the Fall caused large destruction to the primeval beauty of the creation. Nevertheless, the mainstream Christianity (whatever it might be) has never believed in the total depravity of the Creation. According to the Church Fathers, to say that the bodily existence of ours is an evil thing, is a heresy.

The most important thing pertaining to the view of God to the world is, that God never gave second thoughts on it. He may have grieved that he had made humans on the earth (Gen 6,6) but he never said through a prophet: this is an ugly and unfortunate world. On the contrary, God conceived a history of salvation, an elaborated plan, to rescue the world from the powers of sin and death.

To state it clear: The doctrine of Creation is not a prolegomena of Christian theology, but its center. The doctrine of redemption, the coming of Christ, is the fullest emphasis of God's word in the creation. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens up our heart to encounter the original beauty of the Creation. 

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