In the Beginning

Communal ontology of creation

The creation of the world coincides with God’s entrance into it. In other words, the creative act is one of communion, the formation of an ontological covenant between Eternal Being and what is nothing in itself. God does not create by forming an essentially disconnected reality that is only subsequently joined to Him, because the life of the world is nothing other than the life of God Himself, a life that He has freely shared. To exist is to live in God, which is made possible because God lovingly dwells within and among us. The world, then, can be said to be “within” God from the very beginning (and vice-versa). But it is easy to misunderstand such a statement, and human rationality is ever-tempted by the diverse forms of pantheism which seem to provide clear and consistent answers to the antinomies of creation.¹ But they do so in a false and demonic (I use this term technically) way, through collapsing and confusing what must remain distinct.