The End of Creation

Jenson commends Jonathan Edwards’ answer to the question about the point of creation.  Reflecting on the fact that the bride is a bringer of “peace” or “completion” to her lover, he asks: “Can God make a whole with creatures, a whole that somehow satisfies him?  If he cannot, why are there creatures?  If he can, does this not imply that in himself he lacks something?  Why indeed should God have a creation at all?  Why does he need it for?”

According to Jenson, Edwards’s answer is: “given the fact of God’s eternal election, behind which we cannot penetrate, our good and God’s good are from his side indistiguishable.”

This is a striking way to put it: Election is what puts God at risk , rather than an act of risk-avoidance.