Athanasius also refutes corruption of nature

This was posted to me by Penman, corroborating the position of Augustine and Irenaeus: 

 Now, nothing in creation had gone astray with regard to their notions of God, save man only. Why, neither sun, nor moon, nor heaven, nor the stars, nor water, nor air had swerved from their order; but knowing their Artificer and Sovereign, the Word, they remain as they were made. But men alone, having rejected what was good, then devised things of nought instead of the truth, and have ascribed the honour due to God, and their knowledge of Him, to demons and men in the shape of stones.
(On the Incarnation of the Word 43:3)

Penman also points out that the only people who pleaded for a corrupt natural realm in the time of the Early Church were the Gnostics. They attributed the alleged “evil” in nature to the activity of a Demiurge permitted to pervert the goodness of the true God. That has a remarkably modern feel to it in relation to what many TEs seem to advocate, only they give the Demiurge a name: “Evolution.”

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About Jon Garvey

Training in medicine (which was my career), social psychology and theology. Interests in most things, but especially the science-faith interface. The rest of my time, though, is spent writing, playing and recording music.
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