A number of readers have suggested that I was wrongly critical of Athanasius’s claim that without God’s sustenance creation tends toward nothing; I said that this implied that creation has some tendency “independent” of God. The readers point out that Athanasius’s claim is exactly that creation has no independence and would simply not exist at all without God’s continuing sustaining power.
That is perhaps right. As one reader pointed out, the word “tend” is what left me suspicious. If God doesn’t sustain something in being, then it isn’t and it if isn’t it has no tendency in one direction or another. But giving Athanasius the benefit of the doubt, it appears that he is saying nothing different from what I suggested.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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