As with other classic themes in early Christian thought, the doctrine of creation was a complex construction. It drew broadly and deeply from the language and imagery of the Bible. Its ultimate contours and coherence were shaped primarily in relation to other major aspects of the Catholic Christian faith: the Trinity, the nature and vocation of the human ‘microcosm’, the Fall, the economy of salvation, the mission of Jesus Christ to usher in the new creation, the final consummation of the world, and so on. It was a doctrine about origins and also a doctrine about grace and nature, about history, about providence and evil, about tragedy and beauty, about corporeality and incarnation, about time and eternity, and about eschatological judgement and perfection.