The Difference Nothing Makes : University of Notre Dame Press : 9780268203535 : 0268203539 : 05 Feb 2024 : This book explores the doctrinal, social, and spiritual significance of a central yet insufficiently understood tenet in Christian theology: creation "from nothing." In this original study, Brian D. Robinette offers an extended meditation on the idea of creation out of nothing as it applies not only to the problem of God but also to questions of Christology, soteriology, and ecology. His basic argument is that creatio ex nihilo is not a speculative doctrine referring to cosmic origins but rather a foundational insight into the very nature of the God-world relation, one whose implications extend throughout the full spectrum of Christian imagination and practice. In this sense it serves a grammatical role: it gives orientation and scope to all Christian speech about the God-world relation. In part 1, Robinette takes up several objections to creatio ex nihilo and defends the doctri