1. Vatican I on God's Nature and Distinction from Creation

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Vatican I and Vatican II as Continuous Councils #

• Vatican I was interrupted by the Risorgimento and substantially continued by Vatican II
• Vatican II’s 16 documents include 4 constitutions: 2 dogmatic (Lumen Gentium, Dei Verbum) and 2 pastoral
• Dei Verbum continues Vatican I’s work on revelation and divine magisterium
• The two councils function as a single council in many respects

The Structure of Vatican I’s First Chapter #

• Follows the order of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles, not the traditional Trinitarian structure of creeds
• Three-part structure:
  • Part 1: God in Himself and His distinction from the world
  • Part 2: God as Creator and Maker
  • Part 3: God as End and Ruler (Divine Providence)
• This structure is somewhat ad hoc, emphasizing errors contemporary to the council (particularly pantheism) rather than presenting a purely systematic treatment

Divine Attributes and God’s Simplicity #

• One true and living God: Unity of God, possessing understanding and willing
• Almighty (omnipotent)
• Eternal: Unchangeable, existing outside time (shown after demonstrating God’s immutability)
• Immeasurable/Infinite (Latin: immensus): Infinite in will and understanding because divine substance, will, and understanding are identical
• Perfect: Possessing all perfections
• Simple: Absolutely without composition—neither substance/accident, matter/form, nor essence/existence
• Unchangeable: Immutable
• Spiritual: Immaterial substance

God’s Distinction from Creation #

• Central emphasis: God is “in reality and in essence distinct from the world”
• This distinction is crucial because:
  • It preserves God’s absolute transcendence
  • It counters pantheism, the characteristic error of the modern world
  • It establishes God’s freedom in creation
  • It prevents confusion of nature and grace

God’s Beatitude and Freedom #

• God’s happiness depends entirely on Himself, not on anything external
• God did not create from necessity but from free choice
• God alone is truly “liberal” (in the sense of generous) because He receives nothing from creation
• Creation is entirely gratuitous

Pantheism: The Modern Error #

• Pantheism results from confusing the distinction between God and world
• Three sources contribute to pantheistic thinking in modernity:
  • Democratic customs: Emphasis on equality disposes minds toward seeing God and creation as continuous or unified
  • Scientific methodology: The intrinsic doubt of the experimental method makes everything doubtful; if this is the only reliable method, then everything becomes doubtful
  • Rationalist philosophy: Rejection of revelation leads to materialism, atheism, and pantheism

Papal Infallibility and Church Teaching #

• Vatican I’s teaching on papal infallibility is repeated in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium
• The Church’s role is to teach truth and refute errors (following Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle)
• The Church has pastoral as well as doctrinal dimensions

Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium #

• Vatican I emphasizes reliance on Scripture and Tradition “as received and religiously preserved and authentically expounded by the Catholic Church”
• Vatican II’s Dei Verbum makes explicit that these three sources are inseparable
• The tripod analogy: one or two legs cannot stand alone; all three are necessary
• Error arises from mistaking one source for the sole source (as Protestants did with Scripture alone)

Key Arguments #

Against Pantheism #

1. If God is one singular, completely simple, unchangeable spiritual substance, then He must be distinct from the world in reality and essence
2. Pantheism arises from:
   • Democratic customs that emphasize equality
   • Scientific methodology that institutionalizes doubt
   • Rationalism that rejects revelation
3. Pantheism leads to the destruction of reason itself and denial of moral criteria for right and just action

For God’s Transcendence #

1. God’s simplicity means all His attributes (one, living, almighty, eternal, etc.) are identical with His essence
2. God’s beatitude depends on nothing external; He is supremely self-sufficient
3. Creation is freely chosen, not naturally necessary
4. This preserves God’s absolute supremacy and the contingency of all creation

On Knowledge from Creatures #

1. We know God from creatures, which are multiple
2. Therefore we have multiple concepts of God (one, living, almighty, etc.)
3. Yet in God these are all identical with His simple essence
4. This explains the apparent contradiction: what is one in God is many in creatures

On Ownership and Divine Lordship #

1. I own a statue I carve from driftwood because I gave it form (even though I didn’t create the matter)
2. A fortiori, God owns all creation because He gave both matter and form
3. Therefore, all creatures belong entirely to God; I belong to God, not to myself
4. God is Lord because He is Creator

Important Definitions #

• Creator and Lord: God’s absolute sovereignty over creation; He is Lord precisely because He is Creator of both matter and form
• Simple (Latin: simplex): Without any composition—not substance and accidents, not matter and form, not essence and existence
• Distinction from the world (Latin: distinctio a mundo): God’s essential otherness from creation, preserving His transcendence
• Pantheism: The error of identifying God with creation or seeing creation as a necessary emanation from God’s substance
• Divine beatitude: God’s supreme happiness and self-sufficiency, dependent on nothing external
• Ad hoc (character): Treating something in response to particular circumstances rather than in purely systematic fashion

Examples & Illustrations #

The Driftwood Analogy #

• If I carve driftwood into a statue, I own it because I gave it form
• God owns all creation because He gave both matter and form
• Therefore, “I belong to God because he made both my soul and my body”

The Circle Analogy #

• Represent God as the center of a circle; creatures as points on the circumference
• What is one in God (the center) is many in creatures (multiple points)
• When knowing God from creatures, we reverse the order: from circumference to center
• This is Heraclitus’s insight: “the way up and the way down are the same,” just in different directions

The Tripod Analogy #

• Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium are three legs of a tripod
• One or two legs alone cannot stand; all three are necessary
• This illustrates their inseparability as sources of revelation

Modern Pantheistic Examples #

• Star Wars: “The Force will be with you” and becoming part of the dark or bright side represents pantheistic thinking
• Einstein: His pantheistic conception of God, influenced by Spinoza
• Hegel: Pantheistic identification of God with universal being
• German theology: Rome repeatedly corrected 19th-century German theologians (Rahner, Kühn, etc.) for pantheistic tendencies

Confirmation Class Example #

• High school students preparing for confirmation could not name the seven sacraments
• One suggested “graduation” as a sacrament
• This illustrates how “Catholic sensibility has been weakened” and “the truth was gradually diluted in them”

Notable Quotes #

“God alone is liberal, because he gets nothing out of this.” — Avicenna (cited by Thomas Aquinas)

“The spirit of Vatican II is not to read Vatican II.” — Berquist’s observation on how Vatican II’s decrees were neglected despite the council’s teaching

“If you give up the magisterium, then everybody goes off on his own.” — On the consequences of rejecting the Church’s teaching authority

“I always tell the example of my friend who was helping out in the confirmation program… Talk about the truth was gradually diluted in them.” — On the dilution of Catholic understanding

Questions Addressed #

Why does Vatican I emphasize God’s distinction from creation? #

• To combat pantheism, the characteristic error of the modern world
• Democratic customs and scientific methodology dispose minds toward pantheistic thinking
• Pantheism denies God’s transcendence and makes Him dependent on creation

How can God be absolutely simple yet possess multiple attributes? #

• God’s simplicity means He has no composition; all His attributes are identical with His essence
• We know God from creatures, which are multiple; therefore we approach God through multiple concepts
• In God, all concepts (one, living, almighty, eternal, etc.) are identical with His simple essence
• The reverse order: what is one in God manifests as many in creatures

What is the relationship between Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium? #

• All three are inseparable sources of divine revelation
• None can stand alone; all three are necessary
• The Magisterium authentically interprets Scripture and Tradition
• Protestants rejected Tradition and Magisterium, claiming Scripture alone, but this led to fragmentation

How do modern philosophical customs lead to pantheism? #

• Democratic equality suggests all beings participate in a common essence
• Scientific doubt institutionalizes uncertainty about all knowledge
• Rationalism, rejecting revelation, seeks unity through pantheistic systems
• These customs don’t arise from rigorous thought but from cultural habits and customs