"I think it's very important to maintain the classical Christian distinction between the Creator and creation"

John Polkinghorne’s assertion about the importance of maintaining the classical Christian distinction between the Creator and creation emphasizes a foundational belief in Christian theology. This distinction holds that God, as the Creator, exists wholly other than, and independent from, the world He has made. God is uncreated, eternal, and the source of all that exists, while creation is contingent, finite, and dependent upon God both for its existence and its continued being. By affirming this classical distinction, Polkinghorne highlights the transcendence of God. Unlike some ancient philosophies or pantheistic interpretations, where the divine is equated with the universe or is seen as an impersonal force within it, Christianity insists on God’s personal agency and separateness from creation.

This separation protects against reducing God to a mere part of the cosmos, which would undermine the sense of awe, reverence, and worship proper to the divine. It also enables a relationship of love and responsibility between humans and the rest of creation, reflecting the Christian doctrine that all things are created through the Word and sustained by God’s will. Furthermore, maintaining the Creator-creation distinction is vital for scientific inquiry, a point Polkinghorne, both a physicist and a theologian, often underlined. If God is not the world, then the world can be investigated as a coherent, lawful reality, and scientific methods are not undermined by magical or arbitrary divine interventions. At the same time, this distinction affirms that ultimate meaning, value, and purpose derive not merely from the material world but from the creative will and love of God. It challenges believers to respect creation as something entrusted by its Maker, not to be worshipped or exploited, but cared for responsibly. Upholding this distinction thus shapes Christian worship, ethics, and engagement with science, rooting all in humility before the Creator who is both beyond and intimately present to creation.