The idea of creation in Plato, Augustine, and Emil Brunner

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the views of creation that Plato, Augustine, and Brunner advance to deal with problems involved in God's relation to the world. Divine craftsmanship seems to be the model in Plato's view of creation. His view of Pattern, Demiurgos, and Receptacle are advanced in order to deal with such problems in this theory of Ideas as the relation of permanence to change, of perfection to imperfection, and of the one to the many; and the fact that all movement tends toward what is best. Plato submits that the Demiurgos initiates all movement in becoming toward what is best by persuading the Receptacle to take into itself a structure like the Pattern. To create is to persuade a recalcitrant "material" to bring perfect being into existence as far as possible. Plato's hypothesis does seem to account for movement in becoming toward what is best, but it does not render sufficiently comprehensible the relation of perfect being to existence. [TRUNCATED]

Grantor dc:publisher

Boston University

Year dc:date.issued

1963

Author dc:creator

• Buford, Thomas

• Creation
• Theology
• Plato
• Augustine of Hippo
• Brunner, Emil

Statement dc:rights

• Based on investigation of the BU Libraries' staff, this work is free of known copyright restrictions.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

b14687525

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.bu.edu:2144/29064