Aquinas on God: The 'Divine Science' of the Summa Theologiae (Ashgate Studies in the History of Philosophical Theology)

201 Pages·2006·0.8 MB·English

by  Rudi Te Velde

AQUINAS ON GOD
It would be diffi cult to fi nd a more astute retrieval of Thomas Aquinas on God than
this seamless account, which presents erudition lightly yet competently, culminating
in the startling assertion that Aquinas cannot be dubbed a ‘theist’. Finding out how
and why this is the case embodies the joy of discovery attendant upon this text.
David Burrell, C.S.C., Hesburgh Professor in Philosophy and Theology,
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
Aquinas on God presents an accessible exploration of Thomas Aquinas’ conception
of God. Focusing on the Summa theologiae – the work containing Aquinas’ most
systematic and complete exposition of the Christian doctrine of God – Rudi te Velde
acquaints the reader with Aquinas’ theological understanding of God and the meta-
physical principles and propositions that underlie his project. Aquinas’ conception of
God is dealt with not as an isolated metaphysical doctrine, but from the perspective
of his broad theological view which underlies the scheme of the Summa. Readers
interested in Aquinas, historical theology, metaphysics and metaphysical discourse
on God in the Christian tradition will fi nd this new contribution to the studies of
Aquinas invaluable.
ASHGATE STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF
PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY
Ashgate Studies in the History of Philosophical Theology provides students and
researchers in the fi eld with the means of consolidating and re-appraising philosophy
of religion’s recent appropriation of its past. This series offers a focused cluster of
high-profi le titles presenting critical, authoritative surveys of key thinkers’ ideas as
they bear upon topics central to the philosophy of religion. Summarizing contempor-
ary and historical perspectives on the writings and philosophies of each thinker, the
books concentrate on moving beyond mere surveys and engage with recent interna-
tional scholarship and the author’s own critical research on their chosen thinker. Each
book provides an accessible, stimulating new contribution to thinkers from ancient,
through medieval, to modern periods.
Series Editors
Professor Martin Stone, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Professor Peter Byrne, King’s College London, UK
Professor Maria Rosa Antognazza, King’s College London, UK
Professor Carlos Steel, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Also in this series
Hegel’s God
A Counterfeit Double?
William Desmond
Mill on God
The Pervasiveness and Elusiveness of Mill’s Religious Thought
Alan P. F. Sell
Duns Scotus on God
Richard Cross
Aquinas on God
The ‘Divine Science’ of the Summa Theologiae
RUDI TE VELDE
University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
© Rudi te Velde, 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Rudi te Velde has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Velde, Rudi A. te
Aquinas on God : the ‘divine science’ of the Summa theologiae. – (Ashgate studies
in the history of philosophical theology)
1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274. Summa theologiae 2. God – History of
doctrines – Middle Ages, 600–1500
I. Title
231
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Velde, Rudi A. te.
Aquinas on God : the ‘divine science’ of the Summa theologiae / Rudi A. te
Velde.
p. cm. – (Ashgate studies in the history of philosophical theology)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7546-0754-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-7546-0755-0 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. God – History of doctrines – Middle Ages, 600–1500. 2. Thomas, Aquinas,
Saint, 1225?–1274. Summa theologica. I. Title. II. Series.
BT100.T4V43 2005
231'.092–dc22
2005018595
ISBN 0 7546 0754 2 (Hardback)
0 7546 0755 0 (Paperback)
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction: Thinking Systematically about God from Within the
Christian Tradition 1
1 A Masterpiece of Theology
Aims, Method and Composition of the Summa theologiae 9
Introduction 9
The Structure of the Summa theologiae 11
Sacred Doctrine and Revelation 18
The Scientia of Sacred Doctrine 23
The ‘Catholic Truth’ and Philosophy 28
2 The First Thing to Know: Does God Exist?
On the Five Ways 37
Interpreting the Five Ways 37
The Meaning of the Question An Sit 40
The Middle Term of the Demonstration that God Exists 42
The Five Ways as Examples of the Manuductio by Reason 47
The First Argument on the Basis of Motion 48
The Transition from Physics to Metaphysics 51
The Analysis of the Concept of Motion 55
3 The Heart of the Matter: What God Is (Not) 65
Introduction: the Question of God 65
The Threefold Division of the Treatment of God 67
Knowing what God is Not: Negative Theology? 72
The Dialectical Relationship between Simplicity and Perfection 77
God and Being 85
4 Divine Names
On Human Discourse about God 95
Introduction: God and Language 95
The Semantic Triangle of Reality, Knowledge and Language (res–
ratio–nomen) 98
Affi rmative and Absolute Names (Art.2) 102
Metaphorical and Proper Names (Art.3) 104
Are All Names Synonymous? 107
v
vi Aquinas on God
The Analogy of the Divine Names 109
Divine Names and the Analogy of Being 115
5 God’s Proper Action
On the Causality of Creation 123
Introduction: Metaphysics of Creation 123
The Triadic Structure of the Causality of Creation 125
The Argument for Creation 128
Towards the Metaphysical Consideration of Being 132
Creation as Participation 139
6 A God of Grace
On Human Freedom and Divine Grace 147
Introduction 147
Some Aspects of the Relationship between Nature and Grace 150
The Twofold Happiness 155
Grace as Participation in the Divine Nature 160
Epilogue: Aquinas’ God and the Language of Participation 171
Select Bibliography 181
Index 189
Acknowledgements
The present work is the fruit of a long-standing engagement with the metaphysical
thought of Thomas Aquinas. In fi nding my way in the immense labyrinth of his writ-
ings I have profi ted much from the indispensable help of teachers and ‘friends of
Thomas’. Among the many who have been important to me I would like to mention
with gratitude Jan Aertsen, David Burrell, Ferdinand de Grijs and also the present
members of the Thomas Institute at Utrecht, with whom I share a common interest in
Thomas the ‘theologian’.
I wish to thank Carlos Steel, from the Catholic University of Leuven, for persuad-
ing me to accept the challenge of writing this book and for his enduring interest in its
progress over so many years. I also wish to thank Martin Stone, who has read the
manuscript carefully and suggested many improvements, and Peter Byrne for his
warm and encouraging interest in my labours on the subject of Thomas’ God. I am
also immensely grateful to Bryony Lee for her help in improving the English. For all
remaining imperfections in style, however, I bear the full responsibility. I also thank
the Radboud Foundation in the Netherlands for its fi nancial support.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge the ‘silent forces’ in the background: my wife
Annelies and my two daughters, Hanna and Lisa, who helped me to fi nd the neces-
sary rest and concentration by the precious gift of their cheerful presence.
vii
Abbreviations
Comp. theol. Compendium theologiae
De pot. Quaestiones disputatae De potentia
De spir. creat. Quaestio disputata De spiritualibus creaturis
De subst. sep. De substantiis separatis
De ver. Quaestiones disputatae De veritate
In Boet. De hebd. Exposito libri Boetii De hebdomadibus
In De causis In librum De causis expositio
In De div. nom. In librum Beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositio
In Metaph. In XII libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis expositio
In Peri Herm. In libros Peri Hermeneias Aristotelis expositio
In Physic. In XIII libros Physicorum Aristotelis expositio
In Post. Anal. In libros Posteriorum Analyticorum Aristotelis expositio
In Sent. Scriptum super IV Libros Sententiarum
S.c.G. Summa contra gentiles
S.th. Summa theologiae
Super Boet. De Trin. Super Boetium De Trinitate expositio
viii
Introduction
Thinking Systematically about God from
Within the Christian Tradition
Throughout his whole career as a Dominican professor in theology, working in the
medieval academy during the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) was
occupied with the question of God.1 The principal theme and focus of his theological
thought concerned the truth of that absolute reality which people name ‘God’. In this
book we are going to follow Thomas in the way he, especially in his major work, the
Summa theologiae, conceives of God and develops a metaphysical account of the
divine as the prima causa of everything which exists. Since our aim is primarily to
expound and explain Thomas’ analysis of the concept of God, with the accent on the
way in which the ‘theological’ and the ‘philosophical’ are hereby interwoven, it may
be useful to consider fi rst, by way of introduction, how the question of God is
approached in his work, what his position is with regard to the tradition of Christian
faith and its sacred writings, and what precisely it means to call his way of thought
‘theological’.
Thinking and writing about God may happen in various ways, from different per-
spectives, in different styles and with different questions to ask. What the word ‘God’
stands for is never a matter of indifference, which one can decide freely to think
about or not. God is always, in one way or another, a matter of ultimate concern, and
as such the name is already invested with a complex web of meaning, in the light of
which human beings interpret their life by giving it a determinate form and orienta-
tion. One cannot, therefore, think about God without being in some way related to
and engaged in a particular context of human culture in which ‘God’ enjoys a certain
objectivity in religious beliefs and practices of worship, in ecclesiastical institutions,
in ethical regulations of human behaviour, or even in the form of an existing philo-
sophical tradition of searching for wisdom and truth, leading to God along the way
of speculative knowledge. In this sense ‘God’ is never to be approached without pre-
suppositions and on neutral ground, but is always the focus of a complex whole of
thoughts, feelings, attitudes of hope and fear, of longing and love, and so on, and thus
the object of the highest human aspirations, and at the same time the object of dog-
matic regulations and stipulations by which the religious community tries to estab-
lish a normative consensus of orthodox truth. What God is and what the implications
of belief in God are for human life is never something that can be freely decided on
as a matter of individual preference; belief in God, especially in the Middle Ages, has
an objective reality insofar as it shapes a collective form of life in all its aspects.
In view of these inescapable cultural and religious contexts of human life in which
‘God’ has its concrete meaning and signifi cance, it is important to underline the fact
that the principal focus of Thomas’ thought, embedded as it is in the tradition of
Christian faith, is directed to the reality of God. Thomas is not primarily interested,
1