Discussions of creation are often reduced to debates about science and faith. Did God really create the world in six days? How old is the earth? Is evolution true? These are important questions, but the Bible’s teaching about creation is far richer and vaster.
In this 2021-2022 Theopolis Regional Course, Peter Leithart will explore how Genesis 1 provides the foundation of everything we know about God, His relation to the world of time and space, the nature of the created reality, and the purpose and destiny of human beings and the creation.
The course will answer questions such as:
- Why is the creation account written in the way it is?
- Why is God’s name (‘elohim) plural? Why does God speak of Himself as “us”?
- Is “classical theism” compatible with Genesis 1?
- What is heaven? What is the relationship between heaven and earth?
- Why does God first create a formless, empty, dark, and watery earth? Why didn’t He create everything instantly?
- What does Genesis 1 tell us about God’s relationship to time?
- What does the fact that God created the world by speaking tell us about God? What does it tell us about creation?
- Why does God create light first and the light-bearers later?
- What does it mean for animals to be “living souls”?
- What does it mean for man to be created in the “image of God”?
- What does it mean for man to “have dominion”?
The course will be offered at Exodus Church, 15200 E. Central Ave, Wichita, Kansas, 67230 on September 17-18, 2021. There are required readings for this course.
Daily Course Schedule:
8:30 AM: Matins
9 AM – noon: Lecture & Discussion
Noon: Sext
12:15 PM – 2 PM: Lunch
2 PM – 4:30 PM: Lecture & Discussion
5 PM – 7 PM: Dinner
7 PM: Vespers
7:30 PM: Evening Lectures