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Special Topic: Confucian and Christian Conceptions of Creativity

A Christian View of Creativity: Creativity as God

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Abstract

In this article the concept of God as creativity (rather than as “the Creator”) is explored. Though creativity is a profound mystery to us humans, it is a plausible concept today because of its interconnectedness with the belief that our cosmos is evolutionary: new orders of reality come into being in the course of time. Three modalities of creativity are explored here: the initial coming into being of the universe (the Big Bang); the creativity manifest in evolutionary processes; the human creation of culture. It is suggested that this creativity itself should be thought of as God: God is creativity. Thus God-talk is given a referent that is specifiable in terms of today’s understandings of the world and the human. God remains a profound mystery here, but one with a significant place in our modern understanding of the world and human life.

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References

  • Hawking, Stephen W. 1988. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books.

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  • Kaufman, Gordon. 2004. In the beginning...Creativity. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.

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  • Pelikan, Jaroslav. 1960. “Creation and Causality in the History of Christian Thought.” Journal of Religion 40: 246–255.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Gordon D. Kaufman

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  1. Gordon D. Kaufman
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Correspondence to Gordon D. Kaufman.

Additional information

This article includes text and ideas taken from my book, In the beginning…Creativity (Kaufman 2004).

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Kaufman, G.D. Special Topic: Confucian and Christian Conceptions of Creativity. Dao 6, 105–113 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-007-9012-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-007-9012-2

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