I usually use creatio continua at my process theology site. It refers to the continuing creative acts of God throughout every moment and eon of the universe or multiverses. In effect, you may think of God's creational activity as never ending and which adapts to the conditions and environments of the present tense universe.
Others have used the following:
creatio ex sustaina - similar to "continua" but focused on the necessity of God's sustaining of creation thus leaning into the immanence of God without denying transcendence of God. That is, God cannot abandon or be separate from creation lest it become "unsustained". The Christian gospel gains more energy from the knowledge that a loving God ever loves and never abandons creation (contra conservative traditional doctrine which places "holiness" as a more important condition of God's character than what process theology states that God's Love dictates the kind of holiness God is.
creatio ex materia - creation out of material which exists. This is a bit more specific than creatio continua and they each can be used together. Here, we may use the example of a tiny acorn giving birth to a colony of trees, so the biblical "void" which in this sense I fill with a timeless 1 dimensional space of hot plasmic gas without any disruptions, making it homogenous, and void-like (think of a Black Hole which doesn't emit light NOR radiate any energy from its vortices).
creatio ex creation a natura amoris - creating from creation birthed by love. Meaning that God's eternal nature of Love supersedes all other divine attributes. God's love is what gives to God his/her divine holiness. Traditional Christianity says that God's apartness from sin gives to God his/her quality of holiness. Process theology says "No." God's Love is what gives to God his/her divine holiness... not God's quality of apartness from God's creation. Again, leaning into the immanence of God without denying God's "Otherness" (sic, transcedence, per se). Hence, creatio ex creation a natura amoris is more adequate for Christians speaking to God's eternal nature includes love for creatures. Love for creation is God’s motive and motion when creating. And God has always been creating in love.
creatio ex nihilo nihil fit - out of nothing, nothing comes. This reinforces the early definitions of creatio continua et al.
creatio ex deo - creation out of God. But this is inspecific and leans towards creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo)
creatio ex nihilo - God creates out of nothing. Which is impossible. There must be a something there to create from. Hence, supposing a primal plasmic 1D space (no time) that God comes to, "stirs" or reorganizes, and releases to become all that it may become (perhaps a Marine combat soldier! haha).
The possibilities are limitless. It only required a primal source or initial relational contact with God as the Primary Process whom/which (sic, "context") to initial all resulting processes organic, inorganic, and psychic.
The Imago Dei has thus embedded itself into creation that it more fully in relationship to itself, experiencing those relationships as they come into contact with one another, and has embued or taken in those relationships to evolve or "become" in some new sense when filled with "relational feeling" within itself (this is the panpsychic, sentient, consciousness, spirituality part).
In process theology, all creation began with these potential attributes and were enhanced by the God of process to become more than its own static being. So one might say God comes upon all that is and enriches it, regerates it, causes it to thrive, and become more than it was. It's basically how God's Love works. It gives without taking. Blesses all it touches. Is the Causation above all other causes without removing creation agency/freewill.
I hope this helps,
https://relevancy22.blogspot.com/
R.E. Slater
September 14, 2023
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