L’Inizio in mente Dei: L’ipoteca neoplatonica e aristotelica sulla dottrina della creatio ex nihilo, in Filosofia e teologia

ABSTRACT: The doctrine of «creatio ex nihilo» states that God brought the universe into existence out of nothing, or without the use of preexisting materials. With the spread of Christianity in a Hellenistic environment, however, the need to translate this notion with Greek metaphysical models soon emerged. This paper aims at analysig the difficulties arising from the Neoplatonic model (with particular reference to the notion of Augustine’s «seminal reasons») and from the Aristotelian model, with regard to its notion of contingency. It will be necessary to wait for the redefinition of the concept of contingency by Duns Scotus to see the overcoming of both these two mortgages.