Abstract
The metaphysical crisis that Western thought is going through—whose main sign is nihilism—can be overcome through an understanding of the finite being that, precisely understood as ex nihilo, excludes nothingness from itself. This paper analyzes the notion of being ex nihilo and its real dynamism through the contributions provided by the metaphysics of the gift. The origin of being ex nihilo as donatio essendi is addressed first; we then move on to a reflection of finite being as given and absolute beginning. In this paper, I will aim to show that (§1) the notion of donatio essendi is a radical way of conceiving being as an absolute novelty that safeguards God’s freedom while securing the proper novelty of created being, (§2) then illustrate how created being is an absolute gift wholly dependent on the divine being, especially if the created being is a person, and (§3) finally, explain how these theses are compatible with an existential interpretation of the actus essendi according to the first principle of metaphysics, i.e., being as noncontradiction.
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