CT 10.1: Identity of God with His Essence

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 5:14 pm by willduquette

CT 10.1: Identity of God with His Essence 2014-12-23T17:14:41-05:00 willduquette

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We’re blogging through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae, sometimes called his Shorter Summa. Find the previous posts here.

Now that Thomas has established that God exists, is eternal and everlasting, and is utterly simple (in the sense of not being composed of distinct, separable parts) he begins to get seriously metaphysical. That is, he’s going to look at the metaphysical notions we apply to the objects of daily experience, and determine the extent to which those notions apply to God. I came almost to a full stop the first time I read this chapter, because there are so many important concepts that Thomas is taking for granted that I was unfamiliar with. Consequently, I’m going to take it slowly over the next couple of weeks, explaining the background in detail.

The further conclusion follows that God is His own essence.

For the objects around us, the essence of a thing is what you’d answer if someone asked you what it was. That’s a chair. This is an apple. That’s a man. You might think of essence as “is-ness”, what a thing is.

Let’s consider an apple. It is an apple. We say it has the essence of an apple. Apples are not identical. This one is bruised and that one isn’t; this one is ripe, and that one isn’t; this one was a worm and that one doesn’t. All are apples, all share the same essence.

Metaphysically, we say that an apple is a substance. It has the substantial form of an apple; this is what remains the same as the apple changes, as it ripens or is bruised. (Something has to remain the same across these kinds of changes or we wouldn’t still have an apple.) Saying that this object has the substantial form of an apple, and that it has the essence of an apple, are more or less equivalent statements; but we can talk about the essence of apples apart from any particular substance with that form—as we do when we put apples on the grocery list.

So all apples have the same essence. They also have accidents: the things that differ about them, the bruises, the ripeness, the worminess. Thomas uses the words per se and per accidens to discuss what belongs to a thing according to its essence or according to its accidents.

Next week, we’ll begin to look at Thomas’ argument.

Believing Thomas

compendium theologiae

Thomas Aquinas

Previous Post

August 17, 2014

Pope Francis on Fellow Travelers and True Believers

Next Post

August 19, 2014 Review: The Citadel of God, by Louis de Wohl

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Admin App o' the Morning Ask the Dogmat Believing Thomas Bits of Fiction Blasts from the Past Bootstrapping the Interior Life Catholic Mom Christian Living Deep Thoughts from the Doghouse Dominicana Evangelii Gaudium Interviews It Was A Dark and Stormy Night Links to This and That Lumen Fidei Meme Watch On Writing Operation Gratitude Pedant Errant Photography Quill Random Barkings S'Mary's World Shakers of Salt Software Development The Dog Whistler The Dogmat Sez Third Orders Thomas Aquinas Uncategorized Vikings at Dinos Woof Guide to Cinema Woof Guide to History Woof Guide to Literature Woof Guide to Obscure Catholic Music Woof Guide to Philosophy Woof Guide to Popular Music Woof Guide to Technology Woof Guide to Theology Words I Wish I'd Written Works For Me

Select a Month September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Peter James Jesus