as in: "The understanding of creatio ex nihilo is well known and embraced by all mainline Christians. However, what is less understood is the next logical question that follows from creatio ex nihilo: If God created all things from nothing, did God create everything in one instant or is God’s creative act ongoing? This question opens the door to many other foundational questions about God and creation: How do we account for the coming into existence of new species throughout history? Why would God allow certain species to become extinct? How do we understand change in relationship to time? And so forth. To help us answer these questions, we will enlist the help of the Eastern Church Fathers and St. Augustine. In regard to the Eastern Church Fathers, two significant authors we can draw upon are Clement of Alexandria (150A.D. – 215A.D.) and Origen (184A.D. – 253A.D.). In addition to embracing creatio ex nihilo, Clement also introduced an understanding of a “continual act of creation” called the creatio continua. This understanding was that God’s act of creation did not cease at the first moments of existence, but rather the act of creation is ongoing with things constantly coming into existence. Origen takes this understanding of creatio continua and places it within a Trinitarian framework, developing his theology of “exitus-reditus” in which all of creation comes from God (the exitus) and ultimately returns to God (the reditus). Therefore, our understanding of creatio ex nihilo and creatio continua also includes an exploration of why things come into existence in addition to exploring philosophically how things come into existence. If all things come from God and return to God, then there is a reason why this “going out” and “coming in” relationship exists. Also, this continual act of creation helps us understand that it is necessary for certain things to exist at certain times of history. (Example: There is a reason I exist at this point of history and did not exist at the time of Jesus Christ.)"