Creation and Transcendence

Paul J. DeHart demonstrates in Creation and Transcendence: Theological Essays on the Divine Sublime why maintaining what is often dismissed as a remnant of inviable cosmologies—a theology of creatio ex nihilo—remains pertinent for the Christian community today.

The short yet dense book is divided into three parts, with DeHart systematically advancing his argument across a backdrop of divine infinity and divine simplicity, and in conversation with thinkers rooted primarily in the continental tradition. Part 1 is heavily philosophical, taking on the divine subject in relation to the human through the figure of Jesus, the perfect (re)enactment of the divine. DeHart also considers how divine infinity entails certain possibilities for theological anthropology and human subjectivity. He follows Friedrich Schleiermacher and Søren Kierkegaard for their insights into divine infinity and takes up the latter’s theory of repetition, as mediated by Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysical framework, to understand how human existence, when understood as repetition, can be interpreted as an extension of the divine infinite (81). A shorter Part 2 dialogues with systematic Christian theology through the works of Eberhard Jüngel and John Milbank. It is the final portion, however, that is the most intriguing and politically relevant, and it is where DeHart finally makes explicit why we ought to hold on to some notion of creation ex nihilo. He ultimately concludes that creaturely freedom and self-determination are born precisely from God’s creating ex nihilo, articulating an ethical foundation for individual subjectivity, freedom, and agency.

One of the gifts of this book that should not be overlooked is the skillful recovery and deployment of ancient and medieval philosophies and cosmologies that are often eschewed. To read through this book is a playful mental exercise as we determine, alongside DeHart, which historical ideas and traditions we might reinterpret, and why. For example, chapter 8 is a thorough and well-reasoned consideration of why Aquinas’ divine idea theory once served a threefold epistemological, soteriological, and ontological function, but, based on assumptions within Aquinas’ own metaphysical framework, DeHart no longer considers the theory viable.

DeHart’s unique contribution to a theology of creation ex nihilo lends itself to a thick and rich theological anthropology. Correcting Aquinas’ harsh image of humans as deficient repetitions of the divine, he conceives of humans as intentionally willed by the divine, cooperative with and in the divine subject—agential and unique subjects in their own right. “The paradox of the [human] dual identity in the divine idea . . . finds resolution as a practice, necessarily repeated: the constant, free elaboration of one’s identity through chosen response to one’s living context must be continually, consciously embraced rather than evaded” (233-4). Within the Christian community, the theo-ethical implication of this vision of the human being are many and serve as a springboard for deeper reflection.

Although this work is undeniably theological in scope, I’m left curious about its political ramifications in our current climate marked by globalism and religious pluralism. Considering DeHart’s anthropological claims are predicated upon a theological one, I read his project, in part, as a response to Modernity’s desacralizing effects, particularly on how we conceive of the human being. Recalling the concerns of that era, specifically the violence resulting from the collusion of political and religious authorities, it is unsurprising that many found secularism an attractive alternative. DeHart has offered an exemplary account of one person’s attempt to (re)assign meaning to the human within a particular religious tradition, yet I wish he would have aided us by imagining its potential application. DeHart proves his expertise in theoretical explorations, undoubtedly, yet I wonder how (or if!) attention to the quotidian, lived experience of the human subject might have offered a guide to the reader for how we can explore with nuance and particularity the ethical implications of his increasingly germane claims.

A compilation of previously published essays, portions of the book could be read independently and maintain their intelligibility, even while it is best read consecutively. This book would make for an excellent resource for a graduate course or independent scholarly research in Thomistic and Platonic scholarship as well as investigations into creation, transcendence, freedom, subjectivity, and agency as interpreted within Christian tradition(s).  

Carmen González is a doctoral student of integrated studies in ethics and theology at Loyola University Chicago.

Carmen González

Date Of Review:

January 27, 2023