ABSTRACT
In his book on St. Thomas, G.K. Chesterton makes, in passing, an interesting remark that if, conformable to Carmelite custom, a fi tting epithet such as John ‘of the Cross’ or Thérèse ‘of the Child Jesus’ were sought for Thomas Aquinas, the most appropriate one would be Thomas ‘of the Creator’ – Thomas a Creatore.1 It is, indeed, true that the theme of creation is basic to Thomas’ thought, especially in the sense that it forms the theologico-metaphysical background of his characteristic positive valuation of what things are in themselves and what they are capable of by nature. The doctrine of creation provides the general metaphysical framework of most of his theological, anthropological and ethical inquiries. The whole of what exists, in all its multiplicity and diversity, is regarded as a good creation of God, who is not part of the world but its transcendent principle and origin. Being God’s creation, the world is fundamentally to be affi rmed in its positive ontological value and sense. The world we live in is not, in principle, an evil place which threatens to distract us from God. Thomas’ theological vision is stamped by an attitude of trust and open acceptance of the natural world (the natural world as explored and described in Aristotle’s philosophy of nature), not as the ultimate horizon of human life, but as a place in which we have to realize our orientation towards God. The Christian belief in creation motivates him to strongly oppose the Gnostic temptation to devalue material reality as something from which we should be saved. What seems to me most characteristic of Thomas’ view of creation is his conviction that any devaluation of the world of creatures means, in fact, derogation of the power of the Creator himself. Thinking disparagingly of creatures, even if this happens with a view to highlighting God’s greatness and perfection, actually comes down to demeaning God.2 Being the Creator, God does everything, however not in the sense that He does everything on his own to the exclusion of other non-divine agents; He does everything in such a way that the proper effi ciency of created nature is preserved, or better, established in its own order.
