MOVEMENT AND ITS STABILITY AS AN ARGUMENT FOR CREATION, IN THE CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS

Abstract

The Cappadocian Fathers consider that the orderly movement of creatures and, especially, the stability of heavenly bodies is an indication of the existence of the Creator and divine providence. In St. Basil the Great we find a version of the argument of the First Mover from Aristotle, developed also by Thomas Aquinas. In St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nazianz, as in Aristotle, the question of the existence of movement was posed not only in the sense of an original impulse towards movement, but also for the continuation of movement once begun. The sustaining in motion had to have a cause outside the one being moved. And St. Gregory of Nyssa shows that the stability of the movement of heavenly bodies is a witness of divine proneness, as a sign of the specificity of the uncreated, which is unchangeability, in contrast to the attribute of change that dominates the creature. The Cappadocian Fathers do not base faith on reason, but by rational arguments and facts of nature they strengthen the solidarity between faith and reason and clear the obstacles, coming from wrong philosophies, which obstruct the channels through which natural revelation inspires manry