Augustine’s Theolog(ies) of Creation: Simultaneous Creation, ‘Seminal Seeds’, and Genesis 1–3

Abstract

Are Augustine’s views of creation still relevant today, after the scientific revolution, and especially post-Darwin? Surely, much of his interpretation cannot withstand the onslaught of modernity and its concomitant increase in scientific knowledge. Perhaps not, but we can still learn from Augustine. It is a modern myth that the scientific revolution alone began – or forced – the church to come up with interpretations that were amenable to the science of their time. Augustine is a prime example of this “wrestling with the Divine”. However, we cannot go to Augustine with the hopes of settling the debate on origins and scriptural interpretation. Augustine erred mightily when he sought to use the bible as a proverbial science textbook. In this essay, we will encounter a presentation of Augustine’s theolog(ies) of creation through examining his views of “seminal seeds”, simultaneous creation, and his interpretive acrobatics with regard to Genesis 1–3. Whereas his initial persuasion on this matter was sound, Augustine nevertheless contradicted it in his own writings, to our corporate detriment.