The goodness of creation
Genesis calls what God made good. The world has its own created reality and remains dependent on the Creator.
Key points
- Created goodness does not mean that corruption, sin, and death are themselves goods.
- Christian hope concerns the renewal of embodied creation, not escape from created existence.
Scripture
- Genesis 1:31 — God sees all that he has made as very good.
- 1 Timothy 4:4-5 — Created things are received with thanksgiving rather than despised.
- Romans 8:19-23 — Creation's present groaning is set beside hope for renewal.
Primary sources
Irenaeus writes against Gnostic separation of God from creation:
Irenaeus identifies the good God with the one who formed humanity, planted paradise, and made the world.
He is just; He is good; He it is who formed man, who planted paradise, who made the world
Passage context and translation
Irenaeus is rejecting systems that separate the supreme God from the maker of the material world. His affirmation of the Creator's goodness belongs to that anti-Gnostic argument.
Before the excerpt
He is the Former, He the Builder, He the Discoverer, He the Creator, He the Lord of all
After the excerpt
He is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of the living