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christian-theology-properfeatured in 40 works

Creation Out of Nothing

God made the world not from anything, but from nothing at all

This doctrine holds that God created the universe not by shaping pre-existing matter but out of nothing, by his own free will. Articulated by writers such as Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus in his Against Heresies, it was set against Gnostic and Platonic notions of eternally existing matter. It affirms that everything depends entirely on God, who alone is uncreated and the free source of all that exists.

How it traveled

  1. Against Heresies: Book II
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  2. Against Heresies: Book I
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  3. Against Heresies: Book IV
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  4. Against Heresies: Book V
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  5. Against Hermogenes.
    · 220
    explains
  6. Of the Manichæans.
    · 220
    explains
  7. Against the Valentinians.
    · 220
    explains
  8. On the Resurrection of the Flesh.
    · 220
    explains
  9. The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius
    Caesarea · 339
    explains
  10. The Incarnation of the Word
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  11. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.)
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  12. Against the Heathen. (Contra Gentes.)
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  13. The Hexæmeron
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  14. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril
    Jerusalem · 386
    explains
  15. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
    explains
  16. On the Making of Man
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  17. Against Eunomius
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  18. The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  19. Homilies on First Corinthians
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  20. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  21. City of God
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  22. Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  23. A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  24. Expositions on the Book of Psalms
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  25. Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  26. Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called Fundamental
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  27. Reply to Faustus the Manichæan
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  28. On Marriage and Concupiscence
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  29. On the Morals of the Manichæans
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  30. On the Holy Trinity
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  31. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  32. Monologium
    Canterbury · 1109
    explains
  33. Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  34. Treatise on the Work of the Six Days (qq[65]-74)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  35. Treatise on the Conservation and Government of Creatures (qq[103]-119)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  36. Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  37. Treatise on The Creation (QQ[44-46])
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  38. Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  39. Book First. of the Knowledge of God the Creator
    Geneva · 1564
    explains
  40. Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains

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Modern teachers who discuss this idea

Modern and living teachers whose books take up Creation Out of Nothing. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.