The World as Book of God
The world as a book, poem, and temple of God, proclaiming His glory through its beauty and order. God created the world to offer man a book in which he might see and read his Creator. St. Anthony: "My book is the nature of things created by God." Basil: the entire mass of the world is like a book written with letters, openly testifying and proclaiming the glory of God. Augustine: God composed the world like a most sweet music and a most beautiful poem with antitheses.
Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)
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God (Elohim): Thirteen Definitions
— God created the world for man: as a royal house, a theater and paradise of delight, and a book in which to read his Creator.
"God therefore created the world for this purpose: first, to prepare for the human being a royal house, indeed a kingdom; second, to provide for him a theater of all things and a paradise of every kind of delight; third, to offer him a book in which he might see and read his Creator."
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Verse 31: And God Saw All Things That He Had Made, and They Were Very Good
— St. Anthony to the philosopher: "My book is the nature of things created by God, which whenever it pleases me, supplies the books of God Himself for reading."
"My book, O Philosopher, is the nature of things created by God, which whenever it pleases me, supplies the books of God Himself for reading."
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Verse 31: And God Saw All Things That He Had Made, and They Were Very Good
— Basil: the entire mass of the world is like a book written with letters, openly testifying and proclaiming the glory of God to the intellectual creature.
"This entire mass of the world," he says, "is like a book written with letters, openly testifying and proclaiming the glory of God, and abundantly declaring to you, the intellectual creature, His most august majesty, otherwise hidden and invisible."
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Verse 31: And God Saw All Things That He Had Made, and They Were Very Good
— Augustine: God composed the world like a most sweet music and a most beautiful poem with antitheses; the world is ordered for the utility of man.
"the world is a most sweet music of God the Composer, which, composed of varied and contrary things like opposed sounds and tones, produces a wonderful harmony and concord."