The Problem of the Origin and Essence of Nothing in the Christian Concept of the Creation of the World by God

Abstract

In this article, the authors offer an original view on the development of the creation concepts in the Christian thought history. The article focuses on the importance of the cosmogony of Gnostic Christianity for the development of cosmogonic ideas in European philosophy. The cosmogony of the Gospel of Truth is interpreted as a serious philosophical alternative to the orthodox concept of the creation of the world from nothing and the neoplatonic concept of emanation. The authors point to the continuity between the concept of creation in the texts of Gnostic Christianity and subsequent philosophical systems expressed in the texts of Origen, Evagrius of Pontus, Areopagitics, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, and others. Particular attention is paid to the understanding
of the concept of “nothing” in the context of the development of cosmogonic systems.