Not creation ex nihilo: rather, a battle.

"I have now discussed three related intellectual tendencies that have historically led scholars away from a proper understanding of creation in the Hebrew Bible and related literature: the residue of the static Aristotelian conception of deity as perfect, unchanging being; the uncritical tendency to affirm the constancy of divine action; and the conversion of biblical creation theology into an affirmation of the goodness of whatever is. In my view, the overall effect of these three ways of thinking has been to trivialize creation by denying the creator a worthy opponent....When God creates something in a void, his act of creation is no longer a victory for justice and right order, nor can it be continued or reenergized by human action."

From Creation and the Persistence of Evil, by Jon D. Levenson (signed copy)
Library of Sonja, theology student
New Haven, Connecticut


Levenson argues that God created the world as a victory in the struggle against evil--a struggle which continues today--and that evil is not something God created along with goodness. Theology. As real as spoons and forks to Sonja, Levenson, and other religious people (perhaps they've just got that sort of brain). But for those of us trained in science and drawn to religion, it is hard to know how to react to such ideas. Does viewing the world as Levenson views it change the way you make decisions and face your life? Or is it just a curious thing he thinks about in his office at Princeton that need not concern you?