Creator and Creation: Or, the Knowledge in the Reason of God and His Work

Creator And Creation: Or, The Knowledge In The Reason Of God And His Work by Laurens Perseus Hickok. This 1872 philosophical theological treatise articulates a program for knowing God and His work through a distinct organ of knowledge: Reason. Hickok argues that knowledge restricted to sense experience is inadequate for grasping ultimate realities, and that a higher spiritual faculty is needed to comprehend a Creator who is independent of nature and yet the author of creation. Dividing the work into two parts, he first surveys the limits of experience and the alleged inadequacies of empiricism, positivism, and Kantian critique, then demonstrates how Reason can attain knowledge of an Absolute Creator. In Part II, he develops a speculative cosmology detailing space, time, force, life, and the emergence of a created universe through a triune Creator, the Reign of Life, and the organization of vegetable, animal, and human life. Hickok concludes that Reason, harmonizing mind and world, leads to a vision of God, creation, and human immortality grounded in divine wisdom and rational faith.