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The One Creator God in Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology / Michael J Dodds, OP

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The One Creator God in Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology / Michael J Dodds, OP } THE ONE CREATOR GOD IN THOMAS AQUINAS & CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY Sacra Doctrina SerieS Series Editors Chad C. Pecknold, The Catholic University of America Thomas Joseph White, OP,Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas THE ONE } CREATOR GOD IN THOMAS AQUINAS & CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY Michael J. Dodds, OP The Catholic University of America Press Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2020 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Dodds, Michael J., author. Title: The one creator God in Thomas Aquinas and contemporary theology / Michael J Dodds, OP. Description: Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2020. | Series: Sacra doctrina | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020014179 | ISBN 9780813232874 (paperback) | Subjects: LCSH: God (Christianity)—History of doctrines. | Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274. | Catholic Church—Doctrines—History. Classification: LCC BT98 .D5635 2020 | DDC 231.7/65—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014179 } To my students contentS Contents List of Figures ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 . 1 The Existence of God 24 .2 Divine Attributes 61 . 3 Knowing and Naming God 80 .4 Divine Knowledge and Life 102 5. Divine Will 110 .6 Divine Love, Justice, and Compassion 118 7. Divine Providence 126 8. Divine Power 147 9. Divine Beatitude 153 10. Creation and Divine Action 158 Conclusion 174 Appendix 1: Key Philosophical Terms and Concepts 177 Appendix 2: The Emergence of Monotheism 188 Bibliography 199 Index 223 viii contentS Figures .1-1 Infinity by Division 36 1-2. Infinity by Extension 36 1-3. Types of Qualities and Modes of Possession 47 3-1. Analogy of Many to One 89 3-2. Analogy of One Thing to Another 90 3-3. God and the Analogy of Many to One 91 3-4. God and the Analogy of One to Another 91 5-1. The rimaryP Causality of God and the Secondary Causality of Creatures 116 8-1. No “Best of All Possible Worlds” 152 A-1. Terminology for Monotheism 189 ix a bbrevationS Abbreviations Works of Thomas Aquinas Cat. aur. in joann. Catena aurea in Joannem De aeternitate De aeternitate mundi De articulis De articulis fidei et ecclesiae sacramentis De ente De ente et essentia De malo Quaestiones disputatae de malo De pot. Quaestiones disputatae de potentia De ver. Quaestiones disputatae de veritate In de an. In Aristotelis librum De anima commentarium In de caelo. Commentarium in libros Aristotelis De caelo et mundo In de div. nom. In librum beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositio In meta. In Metaphysicam Aristotelis commentaria In peri herm. Commentarium in Aristotelis libros Peri hermeneias In phys. In octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis expositio SCG Summa contra Gentiles Sent. Scriptum super libros Sententiarum ST Summa Theologiae Super ad col. Super epistolam ad Colossenses lectura Super ad eph. Super epistolam ad Ephesios lectura Super de causis Super librum De causis expositio xi Super de trin. Expositio super librum Boethii De Trinitate Super ev. ioann. Super evangelium S. Ioannis lectura Super ev. matt. Super evangelium S. Matthaei lectura Super iob Expositio super Iob ad litteram Works of Aristotle Meta. Metaphysics Nicomach. Nicomachean Ethics On the Soul On the Soul Phys. Physics xii abbrevations } THE ONE CREATOR GOD IN THOMAS AQUINAS & CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY introDuction INTRODUCTION Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord! These first words of the Shema, the basic prayer of Judaism, are an elo- quent testimony to divine unity.1 St. Thomas Aquinas uses them in ex- plaining that the oneness of God is also an essential article of Christian faith: “The first article is therefore that we believe in the unity of the di- vine essence according to Deuteronomy, ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one God.’”2 Any Christian confession of divine oneness, however, must also entail a trinitarian profession of the unity of the three divine persons as revealed through Christ and the Holy Spirit.3 This book is fundamen- tally a reflection on the oneness of the triune God—on the one divine es- sence of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Aquinas begins his Summa Theologica with just such a reflection: “In treating of God there 1. Dt 6:4. This translation is from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (New York: Col- lins, 1973). Otherwise, except for scriptural passages in the works of Aquinas, all scriptural trans- lations are from The New American Bible, Revised Edition (Charlotte, N.C.: Saint Benedict Press, 2011). Translations of all other works are those of the author except where a published translation is given in the bibliography. For an overview of scholarship on the emergence of monotheism in Israel, see appendix 2. 2. “Audi Israel: Dominus Deus tuus, Deus unus est” (De articulis, Part 1). See also ST I, 11, 3, sed contra. 3. “Just as the effect of the mission of the Son was to lead us to the Father, so the effect of the mission of the Holy Spirit is to lead the faithful to the Son. Now the Son, since he is begotten Wis- dom, is Truth itself: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’ (14:6). And so the effect of this kind of mission [of the Spirit] is to make us sharers in the divine wisdom and knowers of the truth. The Son, since he is the Word, gives teaching to us; but the Holy Spirit enables us to grasp it” (Super ev. ioann., chap. 14, lect. 6, no. 1958). 1 will be a threefold division. For we shall consider (1) Whatever concerns the divine essence; (2) Whatever concerns the distinctions of persons; (3) What ever concerns the procession of creatures from him.”4 Aquinas will be our guide in what follows, acting not simply as a historical figure but as an enduring source of wisdom with much to contribute to contem- porary theological issues. Aquinas clearly states that his Summa Theologica is intended for “the instruction of beginners,” but the academic level of those “beginners” is disputed.5 He starts with a discussion of the nature of theology, whose “chief aim is to teach the knowledge of God, not only as he is in himself, but also as he is the beginning of things and their last end, and especially of rational creatures.”6 In contemporary jargon, this means that theology is concerned with both “God in himself ” (God’s existence and attributes) 4. ST I, 2, prologue. “There are three things to be considered concerning the nature of God, namely the unity of the divine essence, the Trinity of persons, and the effects of divine power” (De articulis, Part I). 5. ST prologue. According to James Weisheipl, “Thomas wanted to present a comprehensive vision of ‘sacred doctrine’ for beginners, a handbook suitable for novices” (James A. Weisheipl, OP, Friar Thomas D’Aquino: His Life, Thought and Works [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic Uni- versity of America Press, 1983], 222). Leonard Boyle agrees: “Thomas in particular probably had young and run-of-the-mill Dominicans primarily in mind and not a more sophisticated, perhaps university audience when in chiseled prose and in easy, logical steps he put his Summa Theologiae together” (Leonard E. Boyle, OP, “The Setting of theSumma Theologiae,” in Aquinas’s “Summa Theologiae”: Critical Essays, ed. Brian Davies, OP [Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006], 12). See also Brian Davies, OP, Thomas Aquinas’s “Summa Theologiae”: A Guide and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 7–13. John Jenkins argues, however, that the work “was meant to serve as a final, comprehensive course for theology students” (John Jenkins,Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997], 89). Bernard Mc- Ginn also pictures more advanced students, perhaps “something like modern graduate students in theology” (Bernard McGinn, Thomas Aquinas’s “Summa theologiae”: A Biography [Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014], 49). Mark Johnson suggests that “the Summa theologiae is not a text for beginners in Christian doctrine but a text for the teachers of beginners in Christian doc- trine: the precise job description of a lector conventus in the Dominican educational system that defined Thomas, the Dominican master of theology” (Mark F. Johnson, “Aquinas’s Summa theolo- giae as Pedagogy,” in Medieval Education, ed. Ronald B. Begley and Joseph W. Koterski, SJ [New York: Fordham University Press, 2005], 140). Denys Turner agrees: “But if this [to be a beginner’s manual] is its general purpose it is perhaps better to see it as a manual for the teachers of beginners than as a textbook for the use of beginners themselves, for that general Prologue makes clear that the revisionary purpose his work is meant to serve is principally curricular in character, that of set- ting out the ordering of the questions in a manner which is more coherently teachable than is done in the standard teaching texts available at the time “ (Denys Turner, Faith, Reason and the Existence of God [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004], 239–40). 6. ST I, 2, prologue. 2 introDuction and “God for us” (God as our Creator and final happiness). With “us” in the picture, theology also needs to consider our moral life, in which we are led to God through grace, and Christ who is “the way.”7 Writing for “beginners,” Aquinas presents these topics in a way that is pedagogically helpful. Over the centuries, his approach has proved useful to beginners while still challenging to proficients.8 His scholastic meth- od of presentation, through questions and responses, leaves his theology open to new questions and invites innovative responses as different theo- logical issues arise from contemporary philosophy and science.9 Although in what follows we’ll forego the technical apparatus of question and re- sponse, we do hope to embrace the broad spirit of Aquinas’s enterprise in considering the question of God, both as Aquinas presents it and as it has been shaped by contemporary concerns.
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