Creation

• Angels — The knowledge of angels obtained from Scripture, including their guardianship, hierarchy, and role in revelation and in protecting Moses and the sacred books
• Creation Ex Nihilo — The doctrine that God created the world from no pre-existing matter, against philosophers who posited eternal matter or co-eternal principles
• Image of God in Man — The doctrine that man is made in God's image and likeness, situated in the rational soul — its six endowments, its natural indelibility, its supernatural dimension in grace, and its moral implications
• Light as Image of God — The creation of light on the first day as the noblest, most joyful, and most useful quality — a living image of God according to Dionysius, with tropological, allegorical, and anagogical applications
• Man as Microcosm and Priest of Creation — Man as microcosm (small world) and horizon of the universe, containing all degrees of being — and as the high priest of creation, exercising priesthood on behalf of all creatures
• Man's Dominion over Creatures — Man's God-given dominion over all animals and the earth, both in the state of innocence and after sin — diminished by the Fall but recovered by the saints
• The Beginning of Time — The nine interpretations of "In the beginning" (bereshit), exploring the relationship between time, eternity, and creation — time began with the world, not before it
• The Empyrean Heaven — The first and highest heaven — the seat of the Blessed, created on the first day and adorned with all its beauty, the roof of the fabric of the world
• The Goodness of Creation — The declaration "And God saw that it was good" — all things created by God are good, against the Manichaeans; the comprehensive "very good" at the end of the sixth day, with nine reasons for the beauty of the world
• The Holy Spirit in Creation — The role of the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, imparting generative force to all creation, as a bird broods over its eggs — with allegorical application to baptism
• The Six Days of Creation — The Hexaemeron or work of the six days, the progressive ordering and adorning of the world over six literal days, against Augustine's theory that all was created simultaneously
• The Vernal Creation and the Liturgical Year — The world was created at the vernal equinox, on March 25 — the same date as the Annunciation, the Incarnation, and (in some traditions) the Passion or Resurrection of Christ
• The World as Book of God — The world as a book, poem, and temple of God — proclaiming His glory through its beauty and order, readable by the wise as a text of divine authorship