The creation makes itself through evolution when the Creator turns inside-out in an ecstasy of joy!

I just watched a fascinating PBS series on Evolution. The final section covers the conflict between science and religion. Did all creatures evolve by natural selection, or were they specially created by intelligent design? From a contemplative / mystical perspective, there is a third option. I'll mention some of the other contemplative views in other posts, but here, I'll talk about just one of the possibilities.

In a book entitled "God's Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World," Christian contemplative Beatrice Bruteau has this to say: "Creation is the Reality (God) turning itself inside-out. Whatever the Reality is that manifests itself as the universe, it seems to turn itself inside-out in doing it. The finite aspect of the world is in fact the ecstatic aspect of the infinite's interior aspect. We are modeling a universe that makes itself, from the inside out, as an act of divine ecstasy, not one that is made from the outside by imposition. I have called this creative act 'God's ecstasy.' Ecstasy means standing outside oneself. It is kin to the kenosis of Philippians 2:6 - being God is NOT a thing to be clung to, so God empties Godself, taking the form of limitation in finitude, and is born as a universe. It is the defining divine act: self-giving, being-bestowing. Ecstasy has the connotations of extreme love and supreme joy. That is right for the creation of the universe."

In this vision, creation by evolution and creation by God are one and the same. Infinitude empties out into finitude. God creates by self-emptying, becoming the driving force behind and within the evolutionary process. Here, God is neither outside the creation nor identical with it, but subsists rather as a kind of "Beyond within." In other words, when Divine Reality turns inside-out in an ecstasy of joy, the Creator becomes a loving power residing within all things, one that enables the creation TO MAKE ITSELF. How amazing! As usual, mystical wisdom is not an either/or proposition, but a both/and process :)

Photo: Lewis Monkeyflowers growing along the Garden Wall, Glacier National Park, MT; July 31, 2013

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