Drama of the Divine Economy: Creator and Creation in Early Christian Theology and Piety

Abstract

This book investigates the relation between Creator and creation as an object of constructive theology and religious devotion in the early church. Initial chapters revisit the challenges and legacies of Greco-Roman and Hellenistic‐Jewish cosmological traditions, and the formative pre‐Nicene rules of discourse for a Christian theology of creation. Subsequent chapters engage Greek, Syriac, and Latin patristic theological interpretation of Genesis 1 and other relevant writings like the Psalms, Deutero‐Isaiah, Wisdom literature, and major New Testament texts interconnecting creation and salvation. Patristic commentators read the six‐day creation account as a “thick” prophetic narrative of the beginning and end of the world. They also developed intertextual links among diverse biblical witnesses to construct the doctrine of creation as a dramatic “script” unveiling the strategy of the triune Creator in his creative and redemptive resourcefulness. Classic issues (e.g. the nature of the “beginning”; notions of “simultaneous” creation; creation ex nihilo and ex Deo) are examined afresh, as is patristic interpretation of distinctive biblical themes. An entire chapter details patristic teaching on the concrete operations of “Christ the Creator” and the “Creator Spirit” in inaugurating the new, eschatological creation. A final chapter explores how early Christians embodied their theology of creation in actual devotional and ritual practices, including “natural contemplation,” liturgical mimesis, and the stewardship of created things. The resonant theme is that beyond cosmogony or philosophical cosmology, the engrossing cosmic theo‐drama or “drama of the divine economy” held the key to the origins and teleology of creation in early Christian understanding and experience.