Robert Barron (in an essay in Sacramental Presence in a Postmodern Context ) writes of the “radical non-violence” in Thomas’s theory of casuality and especially of creation: “In any causal relationship between finite things, there is some sort of intrusion of one being upon another, some influence that comes from the outside.  And given the mutual exclusivity characteristic of finite reality, this influence, even when gentle, moderate or welcome, involves a kind of rupture or invasion.  The act by which God brings the totality of the universe into existence is, on the contrary, completely non-invasive, non-disruptive, peaceful, since there is, literally, nothing that opposes or resists him.”

He contrasts this with mythical and philosophical accounts of creation, in which “God or the gods wrestle some form of opposition . . . into submission, thereby establishing the order which is the cosmos.”  For Thomas, creation is “the absolutely sovereign and gentle calling into being of the world.”  There is nothing pre-existent.  As Thomas says, “God, giving being, simultaneously produces that which receives being.”