“At the risk of overstatement, I might suggest that creation was to Augustine what justification was to Luther, or divine transcendence was to Barth—the area of theology that, because of a theologian’s own personal journey, comes to an especially vigorous expression and is visible in almost everything they wrote,” (Ortlund, 2). With this bold assessment, Gavin Ortlund stakes his claim to the import of what follows in his exploration of Augustine’s doctrine of creation. For Ortlund, if he is right, this is the one doctrinal obsession which drove Augustine and should be remembered by readers of the man dubbed the Doctor of Grace. Returning to the comparison, no one would underestimate the influence Luther’s wrestling with justification had on the development of his own theology. No one having read Barth would mistake Barth’s wrestling with divine transcendence as an ancillary issue in his own thinking.
Ortlund sustains this judgment about the place of the doctrine of creation in the thought of Augustine through a careful reading of the many commentaries on Genesis from Augustine—both finished and unfinished; and in places ostensibly concerned with other aims like the Confessions and the City of God. Ortlund canvasses Augustine’s manifold writings concerned with creation for insights into the creaturely relatedness to the divine and its impact on how we understand the world. This work does not skimp on quotation, and in this way, goes a long way to justify that initial bold claim.
Though a focus on Augustine’s doctrine of creation would be more than a task in itself, Ortlund endeavors to bring Augustine’s thought to bear on contemporary conversations on creation. It is thus a work not only for those of us, like myself, who seek to understand Augustine better, but also for those who wish to understand a Christian and biblical theology of Creation. In the chapter which sets the table for how this work of retrieval will proceed, Ortlund refocuses the discussion about creation to what is not debatable, but fundamental. He writes, “we must say that for Augustine, the most important aspect of the doctrine of creation is not its timing or the exact mechanics of how God does it, but rather the more basic ontological distinction it implies: that there are two kinds of reality; that the One is the source and cause of the other; and that the lesser exists in radical dependence upon the greater…there is not a single area of theology that is unaffected by meditation on the implications of such a vision” (Ortlund 66).
Contemporary evangelical discussions of creation need Augustine because he foregrounds how our understanding of the life, redemption, and restoration of all depend on a clear vision of how God created ex nihilo. Any evangelical theology of creation cannot ignore this claim. To only read the Genesis story as a source text for a scientific assessment of the world is to miss the deep theological claims being made about humanities’ origin and return to God.
Beyond the simple impact of recasting a vision for creation debates in terms of the importance of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, Ortlund also rightly follows Augustine on the place of humility.[1] Although Ortlund’s articulation of the definition is rather restricted to its possible epistemological function, Augustine’s willingness to suspend judgment should be a model for those discussing the scientific origin of the universe. Ortlund writes, “humility in this context does not entail a low opinion of oneself or one’s theology, but rather a posture of eager pursuit of the truth through all the means God has provided and a ready willingness to admit what we do not yet know in the process,” (69). Augustine famously championed a form of natural philosophy against simplistic notions about the cosmos which he had learned from Manichees and from astrologists. One of the most endearing qualities of Augustine’s theology is his willingness to admit when he does not have a biblical warrant or adequate knowledge of a subject. This posture would benefit all engaged in the creation debates.
The outline of the book intentionally resists the impetus to look hurriedly for a “literal” reading or trying to answer the questions most debated. Ortlund does tackle the problem of an historical Adam and Eve and the role of original sin, but he is exemplary in his willingness to hold those tendencies at bay in order to foreground the real theological impact of Augustine’s doctrine of creation. That is, humans are utterly dependent on a God who created humans good and endued them with a desire to find their rest in Him. Other interesting side notes include a discussion of animal suffering and their place in the debates. In the final chapter, Ortlund outlines Augustine’s notion of “rationes seminales” and resists hasty application to contemporary theories of evolution. Augustine believed in an historical Adam.
There is much to commend in this work, as has been stated. As an historical theologian, I would have appreciated at least a gesture towards what “literal”, “typological”, and “allegorical” meant in Augustine’s own cultural climate, rather than simply assuming a contemporary framework. Also, it would be interesting to see Ortlund engage with the recent work by Joshua Swamidass, The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry on possible single genetic primogenitors, but that work was published after Retrieving Augustine, and so Ortlund cannot be faulted for this. Any who are interested in possible scientific solutions to the single parents Adam and Eve as described in Genesis ought to consider Swamidass’ proposal. In sum, Ortlund does a yeoman’s work in covering reams of material in Augustine on the doctrine of creation and rightly emphasizes the magnitude of this doctrine, regardless of where one falls on the question of evolution itself.
Charles Kim, Jr. holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology focusing on St. Augustine of Hippo’s theology of preaching. He is the host and creator of the podcast, A History of Christian Theology.
[1] For a further discussion of this work and how he came to his definition of humility in Augustine’s thought, I invited Dr. Ortland onto my podcast, A History of Christian Theology. Listen to the full episode here.
