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Nature

Traditionally, myth has always told us about the origins, about how things began and

in doing so; it oriented us in believing in them. It tells us where we are from and therefore

who and what we are and how we should live. In principle, the world itself, its physical

features and the realms of beings within it are all part of the myth called creationism.

    So begins the creation myth reported by the Christian doctrine. “In the beginning, God

created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) suggests to us that creation began from

emptiness; a solitude where before a “being” and its ordering stood chaos and eternal

darkness. As such, this darkness was not the darkness that stood out in contrast to light

nor was it to manifest them as a shadow. Rather, it was the primary darkness before any

differentiation and change took place in emptiness. Interestingly enough, it is neither

masculine nor feminine in entity; in fact it is not polarized in any way or form. As such,

this darkness is completely and literally incomprehensible. It has no qualities, it is

nowhere and stands in no relation to anything. Moreover, it conveys more than a natural

cyclic alteration of light and dark, suggesting a possibility of disruption. In respect to this,

this primal darkness plays a double role in the creation myth. On one hand, absence

stands before the beginning of order as the field in and from which creation occurs. On

the other hand, the emptiness haunts the world as a perpetual threat of disorder. For

example, in Genesis 1:2, “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon

the face of the deep…” suggests to us that the powers of time of chaos were not

destroyed, but there were constant danger at the end of things. With chaos still lingering

in the background of time and space, God as the sole creator of darkness was required to

implicate order.

    Alternately, St. Francis’s love for...