Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
Creatianism, as ordinarily held, regards only the body as
propagated from past generations. Creatianists who hold to
trichotomy would say, however, that the animal soul, the ψυχή, is
propagated with the body, while the highest part of man, the
πνεῦμα, is in each case a direct creation of God,—the πνεῦμα not
being created, as the advocates of preëxistence believe, ages
before the body, but rather at the time that the body assumes its
distinct individuality.
Aristotle (De Anima) first gives definite expression to this view.
Jerome speaks of God as “making souls daily.” The scholastics
followed Aristotle, and through the influence of the Reformed
church, creatianism has been the prevailing opinion for the last
two hundred years. Among its best representatives are Turretin,
Inst., 5:13 (vol. 1:425); Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2:65-76; Martensen,
Dogmatics, 141-148; Liddon, Elements of Religion, 99-106. Certain
Reformed theologians have defined very exactly God’s method of
creation. Polanus (5:31:1) says that God breathes the soul into
boys, forty days, and into girls, eighty days, after conception.
Göschel (in Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Seele) holds that while
dichotomy leads to traducianism, trichotomy allies itself to that
form of creatianism which regards the πνεῦμα as a direct creation
of God, but the ψυχή as propagated with the body. To the latter
answers the family name; to the former the Christian name. Shall
we count George Macdonald as a believer in Preëxistence or in
Creatianism, when he writes in his Baby’s Catechism: “Where did
you come from, baby dear? Out of the everywhere into here. Where
did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky, as I came through.
Where did you get that little tear? I found it waiting when I got
here. Where did you get that pearly ear? God spoke, and it came
out to hear. How did they all just come to be you? God thought
about me, and so I grew.”
Creatianism is untenable for the following reasons:
(_a_) The passages adduced in its support may with equal propriety be
regarded as expressing God’s mediate agency in the origination of human
souls; while the general tenor of Scripture, as well as its
representations of God as the author of man’s body, favor this latter
interpretation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account