exchemist
Veteran Member
Yes I had read that Augustine of Hippo took a similar view to that of Origen, but you have provided some excellent, useful references.Augustine never interpreted it literally either.
See:
Evolution | scientific theory
Biblical scholars point out that the Bible is inerrant with respect to religious truth, not in matters that are of no significance to salvation.
Augustine, considered by many the greatest Christian theologian, wrote in the early 5th century in his De Genesi ad litteram (Literal Commentary on Genesis):
It is also frequently asked what our belief must be about the form and shape of heaven, according to Sacred Scripture. Many scholars engage in lengthy discussions on these matters, but the sacred writers with their deeper wisdom have omitted them. Such subjects are of no profit for those who seek beatitude. And what is worse, they take up very precious time that ought to be given to what is spiritually beneficial. What concern is it of mine whether heaven is like a sphere and Earth is enclosed by it and suspended in the middle of the universe, or whether heaven is like a disk and the Earth is above it and hovering to one side.Augustine adds later in the same chapter: “In the matter of the shape of heaven, the sacred writers did not wish to teach men facts that could be of no avail for their salvation.”
Augustine is saying that the book of Genesis is not an elementary book of astronomy. It is a book about religion, and it is not the purpose of its religious authors to settle questions about natural science that are of no relevance whatsoever to how to seek salvation.
In De Trinitate and his Literal Commentary on Genesis, St. Augustine interprets Genesis as God having endowed creation with the capacity to develop - that is, a view compatible with, albeit different from, our contemporary understanding of evolution. Augustine employs the image of a dormant 'seed' to aid his readers in understanding this point, what Alistair Grath refers to as Augustine's belief in "divinely embedded causalities which emerge or evolve at a later stage." See:
Augustine, Genesis, & the Goodness of Creation | Henry Center
Augustine also argues for a notion of “seminal seeds.” His argument is that, when God created the world, he both created actual “stuff”—animals, vegetation, etc., but also created seminal seeds by which (over time) “new” things would come forth.
Thus, at some point after the original creation, we really do see “new” creatures, “new” vegetable life, and so on. But when animals reproduce, or when the seeds of a plant lead to the existence of a new plant, there is no autonomous creating going on.
Rather, God is still the ultimate creator, because within humans, or within other living things, exist these seminal seeds created by God, and only through these seminal seeds does new life come into being.
Young Earth creationism only really became a prevalent thing.....in modern times.
Disturbing but true.
In the middle ages, the main approach to reading and interpreting scripture was allegorical - mystical. Known as "Lecto Divina", it had 4 steps:
Lectio - the slow, spiritual reading of a scripture passage
Meditatio - meditating on the passage (ie reflecting on it)
Oratio - The movement of one's whole heart or being (affective prayer), opening up to God through the words
Contemplatio - One simply rests in God without any attempt at thought or rational analysis, neither using imagination or the memory. It is not an act of doing but rather that of being.
It was neatly summarized by the 12th century mystic and monk known as "Guigio II":
"...Reading, meditation, prayer, contemplation: lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. Reading is careful study of Scripture, with the soul's attention: Meditation is the studious action of the mind to investigate hidden truth, led by one's own reason. Prayer is the heart's devoted attending to God, so that evil may be removed and good may be obtained. Contemplation is the mind suspended -somehow elevated above itself - in God so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness. Reading accords with exercise of the outward [senses]; meditation accords with interior understanding; prayer accords with desire; contemplation is above all senses..."
- Guigo II (1140-1193), The Ladder of Monks
The information about mediaeval religious practice is new to me, but seems indeed to support my previous suppositions. It also comes as some comfort to me personally, since it seems to make room for my own experience as a churchgoer in spite of my doctrinal misgivings. So thanks for that.
Regarding YEC creationism being a modern thing, yes, absolutely. It seems to have arisen in the c.19th, as a result of the insistence of some extreme Protestant groups (Seventh Day Adventists spring to mind) on rejecting any expert authority on how to read scripture. So they reinvented the wheel, for themselves, from a deliberately chosen position of ignorance, and, surprise surprise, did it rather badly.
This disastrous, homespun approach may actually have been triggered by the advances in science in the c.19th (geology and biology especially), which started to put new constraints on how one could interpret the bible and thus posed new and uncomfortable questions. Rather than attempting a new synthesis as the main churches did, drawing on theological precedent - in effect following the example of Augustine and Origen - these groups seem to have felt that they were being forced to choose between incompatible alternatives. They chose, fatally, to reject science and proceeded to construct a competing alternative, starting from the axiom that every word of scripture should be taken as literally factual. So now we have the curse of a sort of idiot religion, running alongside regular Christianity.