creation ex nihilo the act of bringing something into existence from nothing. According to traditional Christian theology, God created the world ex nihilo. To say that the world was created from nothing does not mean that there was a prior non-existent substance out of which it was fashioned, but rather that there was not anything out of which God brought it into being. However, some of the patristics influenced by Plotinus, such as Gregory of Nyssa, apparently understood creation ex nihilo to be an emanation from God according to which what is created comes, not from nothing, but from God himself. Not everything that God makes need be created ex nihilo; or if, as in Genesis 2: 7, 19, God made a human being and animals from the ground, a previously existing material, God did not create them from nothing. Regardless of how bodies are made, orthodox theology holds that human souls are created ex nihilo; the opposing view, traducianism, holds that souls are propagated along with bodies. See also GREGORY OF NYSSA, PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION , PLOTINU. E.R.W.