Creación y razones seminales en san Agustín

Abstract

In De genesis ad litteram, Augustine undertakes the exegesis of the book of Genesis, primarily in its literal sense and additionally in a figurative sense. This will give him an opportunity to develop his views on creatio ex nihilo and make conjectures, from a neoplatonic point of view, about the difficulties arising from the biblical account. In his work, the six-day creation acquires peculiar connotations in a vivid depiction where eternity and transitoriness, potentiality and reality, eventuality and immutability intermingle in a lineal dynamic that starts in a “first dawn” and continues up to the present. In this way, we are faced with a two-stage creation. First, in a “spiritual day” all things where created at the same time, timelessly, initiated as potentialities hidden in the elements of the world. Then, now in time, the birth and unfolding of creation of each being according to their kind takes place. Our purpose is to focus on a concept that Augustine develops with great originality, anticipating modern biology: “seminal reasons”, invisible germs that in different extents regulate the progression of creation.