CREATION AND CREATIAN1SM. -73 



knowable matter, an ajuLop^o^ v\rj on which form is 

 imposed, all these theories we are familiar with 

 apart from the Bible : 1 but not creation. I turn 

 to Duns Scotus, who is often spoken of as the 

 Theologian of evolutionists, and I find a clear and 

 distinct formulation in scholastic language of the 

 Bible view of original creation. No doubt he was 

 writing at a time when the Church of the West 

 was peculiarly sensitive to the danger of Pantheism 

 in any form. Scotist and Thomist fought side by 

 side against the pantheistic Averroes, and while 

 they differed on a subject of far less importance 

 than is generally supposed, they were at one in 

 defending the Christian doctrine of Creation as 

 " the bulwark of true Theism." For some time I 

 was puzzled by a passage quoted from Duns 

 Scotus by Dr. Liddon, which seemed to conflict 

 not only with the creed of Creation as the passage 

 from not being into being, but with numerous 

 passages in Scotus' own writings. The passage is 

 this : " Invenio Earn (Divinam Naturam) neque 

 creatam esse, neque creantem. Quid creabit, dum 

 Ipsa omnia in omnibus fuerit, et in nullo nisi Ipsa 

 apparebit." Clearly if such language was orthodox 

 in the thirteenth century, it would be dangerous to 

 speak of it as pantheistic now, though Dr. Liddon 



1 See Luthardt, Fundamental Truths, p. 79. "The notion of 

 Creation, properly so called, is nowhere found in the ancient world 

 apart from revelation and Scripture." 



