Creation as Relation: An Existential Consideration – Dr. Robert McNamara

The Thomistic Institute

Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Catholicism, Philosophy, Christianity

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Robert McNamara explores how creation is not a distant event but our very act of existing here and now, so that each person’s being is itself a continuous relation of absolute dependence on God that can be freely understood, accepted, and joyfully affirmed.

This lecture was given on December 2nd, 2025, at Queen's University at Belfast.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Robert McNamara is lecturer in philosophy at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, Ireland, associate series editor of Edith Stein Studies, associate scholar of the Hildebrand Project, associate member of faculty at the International Theological Institute and the Maryvale Institute, and a founding member of the Aquinas Institute of Ireland (currently suspended). Robert researches anthropological and metaphysical questions in medieval and phenomenological thinkers, especially as both bear reference to philosophical personalism. He has studied physics and computing, philosophy and theology, and received his Ph.D. for research in the thought of Edith Stein and Thomas Aquinas. Robert is originally from Galway, Ireland and now lives in Carlow with his wife, Caroline, and their four children, Vivian, John, Catherine, and Oran.

KeywordsBeing and Gift, Creation as Relation, Creation ex Nihilo, Existential Dependence on God, Gift of Existence, Hamlet and “To Be or Not to Be”, Joy in Being, Ongoing Creative Act, Saying Yes to Being, Self-Understanding before the Creator

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Timistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events,
0:21.7	visit us at Thomisticinstitute.org.
0:25.6	St. Thomas describes creation in the following way.
0:30.5	Everything that is in any way whatsoever is from God.
0:35.6	This is a succinct way of describing Creatio X. Nihlo, a creation from God. This is a succinct way of describing Creatio Ex nihilo, a creation from nothing.
0:41.3	So we're going to explore what creation from nothing is like,
0:45.3	philosophically, from a metaphysical perspective tonight,
0:48.3	and in that way we're going to ask ourselves the question.
0:51.3	What relation do we have to our Creator? What does God have to do with us?
0:58.0	And hopefully we'll see by the end of tonight that he has quite a lot to do with us, at least according to St. Thomas Aquinas.
1:05.0	Now St. Thomas describes the act of creation as the emanation of being from God who is
1:13.7	subsistent being itself, or being itself subsisting.
1:18.9	You can think of this as the philosophical complement of the name of God communicated to
1:23.3	Moses in the book of Exodus.
1:25.4	When Moses asks God what is his proper name, God says, I am who I am,
1:31.4	or I will be who I will be, or I am what I am, or I will be, or I will be. And then when the
1:39.3	sacred scriptures repeat this throughout the Old Testament, they repeat it simply as the I am. And when we have
1:46.3	Lord in subscript in the Old Testament, what it's communicating to us there is the divine
1:52.7	name I am. Now the philosophical reference for that for St. Thomas Aquinas is God is being
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Thomistic Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Thomistic Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.