1475. Hartshorne and the Basic Idea of Creation

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1. Hartshorne has long since shown how the basic idea of creation can be generalized so as to be a transcendental (indeed, the transcendental) concept without prejudice to the transcendentally distinct creativity of God. 

2. But since consummation is simply the other side of creation, the basic idea of consummation can also be generalized so as to be a transcendental (indeed, one side of the transcendental) concept without prejudice to the transcendentally distinct consummative activity of God. 

3. Just as God is the Creator because God's creative activity is unsurpassable, doing all that could conceivably be done to create both God's self and all others, so God is also the Consummator because God's consummative activity is likewise unsurpassable, doing all that could conceivably be done to allow both God's self and all others to contribute to God's own self-creation. 

4. But this means, then, that God is not the Consummator because God alone consummates the past, but, rather, because God alone consummates the past unsurpassably, all other forms of consummating the past being in principle surpassable, just as God is not the Creator because God alone creates the future, but, rather, because God alone creates the future unsurpassably, all other forms of creating the future being in principle surpassable.

rev. 21 February 1994