The Origin of Creation

The Origin of Creation Commentary by Buki Fatona Cite Share Show Bible Passage An analogical relation between creation and Creator is a thread that runs through Isaiah 40. It is, however, an asymmetrical analogy and this asymmetry is essential. Although creation tells us of God’s infiniteness, creation is infinitesimal compared to God. Indeed, one of the ways in which creation tells us of God is in the asymmetry of creation’s smallness versus God’s greatness. ‘All the nations are as nothing before God; they are accounted by God as less than nothing and emptiness’ (v. 17). The author of Isaiah 40 uses this asymmetric analogy between creation and God to great effect. Paradoxically, the infinitesimal points to that which is infinitely bigger. A similar idea seems to lie behind the American painter Agnes Martin’s The Moment. The Moment, like many of Martin’s works, comprises repetitive ruled lines. Unique to this drawing is the fact that the ruled lines form an egg shape. As I note elsewhere, ‘Martin’s ruled lines are a portal to transcendence in that her abstractions point to an infinite expanse lying just beneath them’ (Fatona 2022: 128). A line symbolizes the infinite because it can be extended at either end ad infinitum. The Moment takes this idea further by being egg-shaped. An egg holds something bigger than itself: new life which unfurls in time. Thus, in The Moment, we are led from the present locus of time into eternity. Martin’s asymmetric analogy between the present moment and eternity is reminiscent of Plato’s analogy of time as an image of eternity in Timaeus (37d). The author of Isaiah 40, like both Martin and Plato, uses the extreme smallness and temporality of creation to point to the infiniteness of God who is eternal. In Isaiah 40, creation’s temporariness points to God's eternal existence. ‘The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever’ (v.6). References Fatona, Buki. 2022. ‘Imagining the Infinite: Transcendent Models as a Fundamental Nexus Between Science and Religion’, in Issues in Science and Theology: Creative Pluralism? Images and Models in Science and Religion, ed. by Michael Fuller, et al (Cham: Springer), pp. 121–32