Stephen E. Jones

Projects: Book (Outline): "Progressive Creation: A Scientific General Theory of Creation":
Chapter 3. History of Progressive Creation

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This is Chapter 3, History of Progressive Creation of the outline of a book that I plan to write on Progressive Creation.

"Progressive Creation" (Outline): Chapter 3. History of Progressive Creation
Copyright (c) 2004-2005, Stephen E. Jones

1. Augustine (354-430)
2. Charles Hodge (1797-1878)
3. Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921)
4. Floyd E. Hamilton (1890-1969)

1. Augustine (354-430)

Progressive creation dates back to Augustine (354-430), who taught primary ex nihilo creation of the material substrate of the universe and then subsequent secondary formation over time (O'Toole, 1944, pp.20ff & 51ff; Ramm, 1955, p.77).
2. Charles Hodge (1797-1878)

However, the first use of the term "progressive creation" appears to have been by the leading evangelical Presbyterian theologian, Charles Hodge (1797-1878), a contemporary of Darwin, who in 1892 wrote: "There is, therefore, according to the Scriptures, not only an immediate, instantaneous creation ex nihilo by the simple word of God, but a mediate, progressive creation; the power of God working in union with second causes." (Hodge, 1892, p.I:557).
3. Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921)

Another leading evangelical Presbyterian theologian and apologist, Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), posed the question, "Who can say, for example, whether creation ... may not be progressive, and may not correlate itself with and follow the process of the providential development of the world, in the plan of such a God-so that the works of creation and providence may interlace through all time in the production of this completed universe?" (Warfield, 1968, p.13). In the context Warfield evidently himself believed that creation was progressive, involving supernatural acts of intervention by God "to spring the chasms in the creative process over which even divinely led second causes appear insufficient to build a bridge" (Warfield, 1968, p.13).
4. Floyd E. Hamilton (1890-1969)

Christian apologist and missionary Floyd E. Hamilton (1890-1969), in his 1931, "The Basis of Evolutionary Faith," seems to have been the first to advocate "a progressive creation" (Hamilton, 1931, p.195). He pointed out that "in interpreting the geological record, we are by no means shut up to the evolutionary interpretation, even granting that there have been successive geological ages in the past" (Hamilton, 1931, p.194). That was because "there is a alternative explanation of the appearance of progressive forms of life in each age" (Hamilton, 1931, p.194). Hamilton reasoned that "[i]f we admit the existence of God, and must posit the divine creation of the first forms of life", then "there is no a priori reason why" there should not be "the possibility, at least, of a progressive creation of the various forms of life from age to age, culminating in the creation of man" (Hamilton, 1931, pp.194-195). In favour of this, he noted that "the Hebrew word yom, translated `day' in the Bible, is used of long periods of time in other places in the Bible, and that there is no reason in the text itself for refusing to accept the geological `period' interpretation of the creative `days' in Genesis 1" (Hamilton, 1931, p.195). Therefore, Hamilton believed that "even the most conservative Christians could find the view of a progressive creation of various forms of life over successive geological ages, in harmony with the Bible" (Hamilton, 1931, pp.194-195). However, Hamilton did not apparently himself adopt Progressive Creation as his own position. Mixter (1962, p.19), quoted from the above last line of Hamilton's approvingly. [top]