Catholic Saint Taught Evolution... Before 400 AD

This may sound like a title to an Eye of the Tiber article... but it is actually true! I am working on a 20 page research paper for my philosophy class titled Creation Ex Nihilo and I have learned many things in the process. The most astounding was that Saint Gregory of Nyssa, who died around 395 AD taught that creation didn't necessarily mean that everything in the world as we know it was created directly upon the moment of creation. Rather, he taught that all matter (and the supernatural) was created at the moment of creation and that the form of later results was impressed upon it. The world was to develop and, through the laws of nature which God established, what He willed to come about later would do so.

It doesn't end there!! Saint Augustine took this even further and put it more succinctly than any modern scientist, who despite their enormous wealth of scientific knowledge, could not explain better, "The waters, at the bidding of the Creator, produced the first swimming creatures and fowl, and that the earth brought forth the first buds after their kind, and the first living creatures after their kind," as well as, "suitable combinations of circumstances were wanting, whereby they might be enabled to burst forth and complete their species.” Seriously. This is evolution. Taught by the great Saint Augustine! In his commentary on Genesis, he explains that when it says, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation," it means that plants were created potentially and not immediately. And this is exactly what science discovered, over a millennium later.

On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. #goCatholicism #hipsters

I have only ruined the beautiful punchline of my (hopefully) soon to be twenty page paper on how one can accept both evolution and the dogma of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). There is so much more to be said (obviously, I'd say at least 20 pages worth), and I am not trying to say all of that in this meager blog post. I just thought that this little tidbit of the whole story is so fantastic that I had to share! If somebody wants a more in-depth look at it, I'd be happy to share my long paper when it is done... or read Father John Zahm's book Evolution and Dogma which is the main text that I am using. He was a physics professor and priest at the University of Notre Dame and published his book at the very end of the 19th century.

Ave Crux, Spes Unica