2. Creation, Divine Providence, and the Canons of Faith

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

God as Creator #

• God creates the world through his goodness, not to increase his own happiness
• Following Augustine: “Goodness is diffusive of itself” (bonum est diffusivum sui)
• Goodness is connected to the final cause among the four kinds of causes
• God is both Alpha and Omega
• The end (God’s goodness) is the most fundamental cause; if God aimed at a good other than himself, he would not be the first cause

The Language of “Almighty” #

• Latin term: omnibotens (all-powerful)
• Potentia can mean potency, power, or ability
• The word “might” has two distinct senses:
  1. Ability for contradictories (what can be and not be—contingent things)
  2. Ability even of necessary things (what cannot not be)
• Example: “It might rain today” uses “might” to express contingency, not necessity
• “Almighty” emphasizes God’s power in a way that transcends both contingency and necessity

God’s Free Creation #

• Creation is an absolutely free act of God’s part
• The universe does not proceed from God by natural necessity (contra Spinoza and pantheists)
• God brought the world into being from nothing (ex nihilo), not from pre-existing matter
• Time itself had a beginning (known more by faith than by reason)
• Whether time will have an end is not revealed (not stated in Apocalypse)

The Contingency of Existence #

• God could have always made us but did not do so eternally
• Your existence is entirely gratuitous: God arranged for your parents to meet, their parents to meet, all the way back to Adam
• The odds of any particular person existing are extraordinarily small
• Gratitude to God is appropriate given the contingency of one’s existence

Creation and Matter #

• God is not merely an orderer of pre-existing matter (like Anaxagoras’s nous)
• Anaxagoras’s mind moves and orders matter but is not responsible for matter’s existence—a still dualistic position
• The angelic mind (in Anaxagoras’s schema) is distinct from matter and acts upon it by change of place but does not create it
• True creation involves responsibility for the very being (esse) of matter, not merely its form

The Division of Thinkers #

• Marx and Engels divide all thinkers into materialists (matter is the beginning, even of mind) or idealists (mind is the beginning, even of matter)
• This division is incomplete: it omits the intermediate position (Anaxagoras, Plato’s Demiurgos) where mind is independent of matter but not responsible for matter’s existence
• Leaving out the intermediate position makes it logically impossible to move from materialism to true theism by reason alone
• The “bridge” is missing: one cannot cross the river
• Thomas Aquinas recognizes that Aristotle arrives at creation, understanding that a cause is needed even for necessary things

Divine Providence #

• Everything God has brought into being, he protects and governs by his providentia
• Providence reaches from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well (or “sweetly” in some translations)
• All things are open and laid bare to God’s eyes (naked before him)
• God knows what creatures will freely do before they do it

The Theological Order of Creation #

• Thomas presents creatures in theological order: angels (spiritual), physical world, humans (composite of spirit and body)
• This differs from the philosophical order, where the human soul is the gateway to understanding the material world through reason
• Humans are a microcosm (Democritus’s term): they have something of both the material and spiritual
• In assuming human nature, Christ assumes the whole of creation in a representative way
• The angels are much more like God than the human soul; therefore angels are appropriately considered first in theology, not philosophy

Key Arguments #

The Necessity of Revelation for Creation #

• God’s free creation ex nihilo cannot be demonstrated by reason alone
• Thomas argues in the Treatise on the Eternity of the World that arguments for or against the world’s beginning are not necessary—they incline but do not compel
• Only faith reveals that time had a beginning (“In the beginning, God created heaven and earth”)
• The world’s beginning must be known by revelation, not reason

God’s Goodness as Motive for Creation #

• God creates not to increase his own happiness (he is supremely happy in himself and from himself)
• God creates not to obtain happiness
• God creates to manifest his perfection by the good things he bestows and creates
• The connection between diffusivum (diffusiveness) and bonum (good) is essential

Against the Materialist Error #

• Those who assert that nothing exists besides matter are anathema
• This condemns contemporary materialism in science
• The error leaves out the intermediate philosophical position necessary for reason to ascend to theism

Important Definitions #

Omnibotens (Almighty) #

• Latin term underlying the English “almighty” or “all-powerful”
• From omnis (all) and potens (able/powerful)
• Signifies God’s power in a way that transcends ordinary notions of potency and necessity

Potentia (Potency/Power) #

• From Aristotle’s framework of act and potency (actus and potentia)
• In the context of creation: God’s power to bring things into being from nothing
• Distinct from the power of lesser causes that only rearrange pre-existing matter

Ex nihilo (From Nothing) #

• God’s creation does not presuppose pre-existing matter
• Unlike the Demiurgos in Plato’s Timaeus, who orders chaos but does not create it
• True creative power includes responsibility for the being itself (esse)

Providentia (Providence) #

• Divine providence includes both protection and governance of all creatures
• The exercise of divine foresight in directing creatures, especially free creatures, to their end
• Related to the virtue of prudence (prudentia) in human beings

Microcosm #

• A little universe; the human being as containing something of both material and spiritual orders
• Applied to humans because they are composed of body and spirit
• Theologically significant because Christ’s assumption of human nature represents his assumption of the whole created order

Examples & Illustrations #

The Improbability of Individual Existence #

• Your parents could have married different people
• At any moment in time, there are hundreds of male omissions (opportunities for conception)
• The odds of your particular existence are extremely small
• God arranged for your parents, grandparents, and all ancestors back to Adam to meet at precisely the right times
• This illustrates the gratuitous nature of creation and each creature’s contingency

Anaxagoras and the Incomplete Division #

• Anaxagoras arrives at the idea of nous (divine mind) independent of matter
• However, his nous orders pre-existing chaos but does not create matter
• Position is more like what we call the angelic mind than like God
• The fact that Plato and Aristotle later recognize mind as independent of matter opens the question: could there be a mind responsible for matter’s very existence?
• Without this intermediate step, one cannot philosophically move from materialism to true theism

The Demiurgos in Plato’s Timaeus #

• The craftsman god acts upon matter and reduces chaos to order
• Not responsible for the being of matter itself
• Represents the intermediate position between materialism and creation
• Important for understanding why the intermediate position is philosophically necessary

Notable Quotes #

“God is supremely happy in himself and from himself” - Summa Contra Gentiles, Book I, conclusion

“Goodness is diffusive of itself” (bonum est diffusivum sui) - Augustine, cited by Berquist on why God created

“If God was aiming at some good other than himself, then he wouldn’t be the first cause. That would be the good itself, right?” - Berquist, on why God’s goodness (not happiness) is emphasized as the motive for creation

“There’s something kind of diabolical about leaving out the intermediary position. It’s like leaving out the bridge. You can’t get across the river.” - Berquist, on the Marx-Engels division of thinkers

Questions Addressed #

Why does the text emphasize God’s goodness rather than his power in creation? #

• Answer: Because the end is the most fundamental cause. God creates because goodness is diffusive of itself, not because he needs anything from creation or to increase his happiness.

What is the relationship between potentia (potency) and the word “might” in “almighty”? #

• Answer: Both refer to ability, but with two distinct senses: ability for contingent things (to be and not to be) and ability even of necessary things. “Might” in “it might rain” expresses contingency; “almighty” expresses power beyond both contingency and necessity.

Did Aristotle understand creation? #

• Answer: Yes, Thomas Aquinas believes Aristotle arrived at the idea of creation, particularly in recognizing that even necessary things require a cause. However, Aristotle’s path was difficult and required first understanding that mind is independent of matter.

Why is the intermediate position (like Anaxagoras and Plato) philosophically necessary? #

• Answer: Without recognizing that mind can be independent of matter, one cannot even ask whether mind could be responsible for matter’s being. The intermediate position serves as the bridge that allows reason to progress from materialism toward theism.

What is the theological order of creation, and how does it differ from the philosophical order? #

• Answer: Theological order: angels, material world, humans. Philosophical order (as known to us): humans (via the soul as gateway), material world, and finally angels (most difficult to know). The orders differ because theology considers what is most like God first, while philosophy follows the natural order of human knowing.

Key Doctrinal Canons #

Berquist introduces several canons (doctrinal statements with anathemas) from the text:

1. Denial of the one true God as Creator and Lord of visible and invisible things: anathema
2. Assertion that nothing exists besides matter: anathema
3. Claim that the substance or essence of God and all things are one and the same (pantheism): anathema
4. Teaching that finite things emanate from divine substance by natural necessity or that divine essence becomes all things through evolution: anathema
5. Denial that the world was created from nothing by God’s free will: anathema
6. Denial that the world was created for the glory of God: anathema