The Gift: Creation (Aquinas Lecture)

An ancient Christian creed “We believe in the Fatheralmighty, creator of heaven and earth...” To the Biblical religionsof Judaism, Christianity and Islam the creation of the world is not asimple statement of fact; it is above all an acknowledgement of theLordship of God. So that the energy of faith is rooted not inadmiration for a miraculous fact, but in wonder before the CreatorHimself. In recent times scholars have collected hundreds ofancient myths of origin from other religions, living and dead,myths told among different peoples, in every part of the world, in averitable Babel of tongues. And so we can speak of widespreadmemory of origins deeply rooted in the human heart and mind. Andyet, what is there to remember? Were you there when the Lord laiddown the foundations of the universe? More than one ancient “Before there were animals and men...” How, then, canwe speak of memory? Is there, perhaps, within each of us apresence that draws us towards some great founding event? What is this “beginning” of which, in their different ways, the Bible and theancient myths of origin speak, when they begin with the words