Participatory Metaphysics and Creation out of God

In Aristotle’s view, nothing comes from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit). Both he and Plotinus thought, therefore, of the substratum (ὑποκείμενον) of matter as being eternal. Christian theology has consistently rejected this understanding of material causality through its teaching of creation out of nothing (ex nihilo). Theologians have parted ways, however, on how to understand the creator-creature relationship once eternal matter is rejected. The Augustinian-Thomist approach has rejected creation from God (de deo). This paper draws attention to an alternative tradition, that of Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor, which thinks of creation as both out of nothing (ἐκ τοῦ μή) and out of God (ἐκ θεοῦ). This paper argues that a genuinely participatory metaphysic requires the combination of creation ex nihilo and ex deo.