St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (Feb 2024)
New Creation in the Christian Scriptures and Tradition
Abstract
This entry analyses biblical and subsequent Christian approaches to new creation, under the rubrics ‘the good’, ‘the new’, and ‘the beautiful’. The introduction sketches points of debate: ‘new creation’ as realized or eschatological, renewed or utterly new, as heaven or New Jerusalem, and characterized by beauty or truth. Section one (‘the good’) establishes as foundational the goodness of creation, so that the eschaton cannot be merely a matter of dissolving the old, but of retaining all that is good (anthropological and otherwise), and renewing it. Here the current debate concerning whether Christians should speak of ‘heaven’, rather than ‘new creation’, comes into play. The second section (‘the new’) moves from continuity in the eschaton to astonishment, investigating the suggestion that creation was given as good but not perfect. Views of the incarnation as reparatory or as inherent in the first creation are considered. The complication of the fall, with its consequences of corruptibility and death is explored: death is seen as a break between the old and the new. Intriguing, too, is the promise of a ‘new heaven’ conjoined with a new earth. Thus, the promised glory emerges as something unexpected, beyond continuity, glimpsed in the astonishing ‘miracles’ performed by Jesus and his followers. In the third section, beauty in the present age emerges as means to glimpse the final telos (end or purpose) of creation. The sacramental quality of God’s creation is discussed, as is the difference between a realized new creation over against a future beyond human imagination. The conclusion suggests an integrating hermeneutic, in which the inaugurated new creation invites Christians to a blessed vision and final communion that will outstrip the original Edenic walking with the Lord. This mysterious presence of the new creation, and hope for its fulfilment, dignifies human worship and sub-creative efforts, including the priestly calling to nurture the world and present it to the creator of heaven and earth.
