7 Reasons Augustine Can Enrich Our Understanding of Creation

1. Augustine’s perception that Genesis 1 was out of alignment with the most sophisticated intellectual trends of the day was a critical factor in his conversion to Manichaeism. But his awareness of alternative, less “literalistic” interpretations of Genesis 1 was a critical factor in his return to orthodoxy. Had he not heard Ambrose’s allegorical preaching on Genesis 1, perhaps he never would have found his way back to the church. This seems to relate to common patterns today (aside from the Manichaeism, of course).
2. Augustine continued to struggle with the early chapters of Genesis all throughout his theological career, writing five distinct commentaries on them and engaging them widely in his other works and sermons as well. Creation became central to his entire thought. As I put it in my book, risking overstatement, “creation was to Augustine what justification was to Luther, or divine transcendence was to Barth.” In all this, Augustine engaged creation at the deepest existential level. For him, it was the key to understanding the deepest longings of the human heart.
3. Augustine engaged creation in dialogue with non-Christian beliefs of his day, so in his doctrine of creation you gather a sense of how Christianity as a whole made sense to him. In engaging Augustine’s doctrine of creation, you see him doing his own kind of “apologetics.”
4. Augustine’s views on creation were recognized as authoritative in his lifetime, and his commentaries on Genesis were unrivalled among the church fathers. His views on creation continued to exert a massive influence on the church in subsequent eras, particularly in relation to the rise of modern science. Galileo Galilei, for example, quoted from Augustine’s commentary on Genesis more than 10 times in defense of his theories.
5. Augustine adopted a kind of framework interpretation of Genesis 1, vigorously rejecting the idea that the days there are 24-hour periods of time. This view, and the three main reasons Augustine leveraged in favor of it, was enormously influential on the medieval church.
6. Augustine vociferously affirmed the goodness of animal death prior to the fall, in opposition to the Manichaean criticism that animal death is evil. He was particularly fascinated with insects and carnivorous animals, and spent a great deal of time reflecting on why God made them as a part of his good creation.
7. Augustine considered whether Adam and Eve were symbolic figures, and developed a nuanced and literarily sensitive approach to this question. His conclusion defended their historicity but acknowledged a high level stylization and symbolization in Genesis 2-3. There are striking parallels between his approach and various positions in the current discussion of evolution, Adam and Eve, and the fall.

There is much more, but hopefully that gives you a sense of his incredible relevance.

The simple fact is this: the greatest theologian of the early church, perhaps the most influential theologian in all of history, anticipated nearly all of our current anxieties about the doctrine of creation. And no one can reasonably write off Augustine as unimportant, or as liberal. Nor can any of his views be disregarded as capitulations to scientific discoveries, since he lived a millennium-and-a-half before the scientific revolution.