The reason for the remoteness of the text from the idea of an evolution of the forms of creaturely reality is that in the Genesis account the initial creation established an order for all time so that each of the works of creation would have lasting duration. Connected specifically with this concern is the fact that the different creaturely forms and the species of living creatures received at the outset the lasting forms of their existence. In this regard the first story has a different emphasis from that of other biblical accounts, which do not limit God’s creative activity to the beginning but see it as an ongoing activity that finds expression especially in his present acts in history (see above, pp. 40ff.). If it is to do justice to the full biblical witness, then, the doctrine of creation has the task of uniting the interest of this account in the constancy of the order that God has established once and for all with the concept of ongoing creative activity. In the context of modern science the idea of a fixed and constant order no longer need imply an immutability of the divinely created forms in their different genres and species. Though the story does not mention these, the idea of unbreakable natural laws does sufficient justice to that concern. The theory of evolution has given theology an opportunity to see God’s ongoing creative activity not merely in the preservation of a fixed order but in the constant bringing forth of things that are new. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology (vol. 2; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991–1998), 118–119.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 13:07:53 +0000
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