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Document Details : Title: Augustine's Intellectual Development on the Temporality of Creation Author(s): XU, Jiachun Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 75 Issue: 2 Date: 2025 Pages: 225-253 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.75.2.3294939 Abstract : This article explores Augustine’s efforts to construct a coherent cosmogonical system, exegetically, by harmonising the two biblical narratives of Creation, and philosophically, by addressing the relationship between the atemporal Creator and temporal creatures. Tracing his three formal commentaries on the Book of Genesis, the study argues for an intellectual development of Augustine regarding the (a)temporality of the Hexameron. When Augustine composed De Genesi contra Manichaeos around 388, he understood the Priestly Days of Creation as a historical process occurring through a temporal progression, after time itself acquired a beginning with the first creative instance. However, by the time he wrote De Genesi ad litteram liber unus imperfectus in the mid-390s, this interpretation began to disintegrate, giving way to doubts and hypotheses. Between 401 and 415, Augustine gradually arrived at his final system in De Genesi ad litteram. As the acts of the eternal Creator, the Hexameron is atemporal and ontological, while from the perspective of temporal creatures, the Days of Creation become instantaneous as the point when the basic forms of the world and all species within simultaneously came into existence. Time also began to unfold at this initial moment, which marks the beginning of temporal events that follow the textual transition in Scripture at Genesis 2:4. Building on these findings, this research hopes to better appreciate Augustine as a complex and evolving thinker. Furthermore, understanding this intellectual journey offers insights for interpreting Augustine’s later works and analysing the transformation of related concepts in his thought. Finally, it provides a new perspective for exploring the reception of Augustine in the medieval Latin world. |
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