19. God's Simplicity: Essence and Existence in God

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Identity of Essence and Existence in God #

• The Problem: In creatures, what something is (essence/nature) differs from that it is (existence)
  • A cat’s essence (what it is to be a cat) is distinct from its actual existence
  • If existence were added to God’s essence, it would either:
    1. Be caused by something external (making God an effect, not first cause)
    2. Be caused by God’s own nature (impossible: nothing can cause itself to exist)
• The Solution: In God alone, essence and existence are identical
  • God IS His own existence (ipsum esse)
  • This is what Exodus 3:14 reveals: “I AM WHO I AM”

Three Arguments for God’s Identity of Essence and Existence #

1. From Causality:

   • Whatever exists in something beyond its nature must be caused
   • If existence is distinct from God’s essence, it must be caused
   • Either the essence causes it (self-causation, impossible) or something external causes it (making God dependent)
   • Therefore, existence cannot be distinct from essence in God

2. From Act and Potency:

   • Existence (esse) is the actuality of every form or nature
   • If essence and existence were distinct in God, existence would be to essence as act is to potency
   • God is pure act (actus purus) with no potentiality whatsoever
   • Therefore, there can be no composition of essence and existence in God

3. From Participation:

   • Things that have being but are not being itself exist by participation in being
   • God is being itself (ipsum esse subsistens), not something that merely participates in being
   • If God’s existence were distinct from His nature, He would exist by participation
   • Therefore, God must be His own existence

God Cannot Be the Common Being Said of All Things #

• A fundamental error (exemplified by Hegel) is identifying God with abstract universal being
• This leads to pantheism: God becomes identified with all things
• Crucial distinction: universale in causando (universal as cause) vs. universale in predicando (universal as predicate)
  • God is the universal cause of all being, not a universal predicate said of all things
  • Illustration: “General” MacArthur is a universal cause but not said of soldiers; “soldier” is said of many but is not a universal cause
  • Shakespeare’s pun in Troilus and Cressida: Cressida has been kissed by the general but not kissed “in general” (by everyone)
• The being of God is incommunicable; Scripture forbids giving this name to idols (Wisdom 14)

God’s Existence versus Essence in Creatures vs. God #

• In Creatures:
  • Essence and existence are really distinct
  • The nature could potentially not exist
  • Existence is received and dependent
• In God:
  • Essence and existence are identical
  • God necessarily exists
  • God is existence itself, not a being that has existence

Key Arguments #

The Argument from Self-Causation #

• If God’s existence were distinct from His essence, His essence would need to cause its own existence
• But this is impossible: a thing cannot be the cause of itself if it does not already exist
• You cannot give rise to your own existence without already existing—a contradiction
• Therefore, essence and existence must be identical in God

The Argument from Pure Actuality #

• Existence is the actuality that makes any nature actual
• If God’s essence were merely potential to His existence, there would be potency in God
• God is pure act with absolutely no potentiality
• Therefore, essence and existence cannot be distinct in God

The Refutation of Hegel’s Error #

• Hegel identifies God with being-in-general (the common being said of all things)
• This confuses the being that causes all things with the being said of all things
• If God were the common being, He would be communicated to all creatures as a genus
• Scripture denies this: “They gave the incommunicable name to pieces of wood and stone” (Wisdom 14)

Important Definitions #

Essence (essentia, quidditas—whatness) #

• What a thing is; the nature constitutive of a thing
• In creatures, distinct from the individual possessing it
• Signified by abstract terms (humanity, animality)
• In God, identical with His being

Existence (esse—to be) #

• The actuality by which something is
• The most fundamental act
• In creatures, added to essence as perfection to what is potential
• In God, identical with His essence

Actuality (actus) #

• The perfection or realization of something
• Existence is the supreme actuality—it actualizes all forms and natures
• Pure act: without any potentiality or passivity

Participation (participatio) #

• The way creatures possess being
• A thing has being but is not being itself; it participates in being
• God does not participate in being; God IS being

Pure Act (actus purus) #

• Being without any potentiality
• The first principle of all being and causality
• Characteristic of God alone
• Precludes all composition (matter-form, essence-existence, substance-accident)

Examples & Illustrations #

Tea and Hot Water #

• Berquist illustrates how existence is added to essence through the example of water made hot by fire
• The water’s essence (what it is to be water) is distinct from its being heated by an external cause
• This shows how creatures receive their existence from outside themselves

The Point and the Line #

• A point is not strictly a quantity but is reduced to quantity as its beginning
• Similarly, one is not strictly a number but is the beginning of number
• This illustrates how principles relate to genera differently

Shakespeare’s Pun #

• In Troilus and Cressida: Cressida is kissed by the general but not kissed “in general”
• Illustrates the distinction between being a universal cause (like a general commanding an army) and being said of many (like a soldier applied to all soldiers)
• God is the universal cause of all being, not the universal predicate of all things

Soldiers vs. General MacArthur #

• “Soldier” is universal in predicando: it is said of everyone in the army
• “General MacArthur” is universal in causando: he is a cause that affects the whole army, but is not said of anyone else in it
• People confuse these two senses of “universal,” leading to errors about God and being

Notable Quotes #

“God is not only his own essence or nature, but also his own, what? Being, right?”

“I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14) - God’s revelation of His identity with His own existence

“No thing suffices that it be for itself the cause of its being, if it has caused being.”

“Since, therefore, in God there is nothing potential as has been shown above, it follows that there is not, that is not other in him, his essence, than his very being or existence.”

“If you identify the being that is God with the being said of all things, you’re kind of identifying God with all things, right?”

“Truth does not require that the way we know be the way things are, but we have to be careful to distinguish between the way we know and the way things are.”

Questions Addressed #

Q: How can God’s essence not differ from His existence when in creatures they are clearly distinct? #

A: The distinction in creatures reflects their dependence and composition. In God, who is pure act without any potentiality, there can be no distinction between what He is and that He is. God’s existence is not added to His nature but is identical with it.

Q: If God’s existence is not distinct from His essence, doesn’t this make God the common being said of all things? #

A: No. God is ipsum esse subsistens (being itself subsisting), not the abstract universal “being” predicated of all things. God is the cause of all being (universale in causando), not a predicate applicable to all things (universale in predicando). These are fundamentally different.

Q: Doesn’t this doctrine of essence-existence identity make God pantheistic? #

A: Only if confused with Hegel’s error. Thomas distinguishes sharply between God as the first cause of all being and God as somehow identical with all things. God is incommunicable being, not communicated to creatures as a genus.

Q: How does the argument from pure actuality work? #

A: If existence were distinct from essence in God, it would be to essence as act to potency. But God is pure act with no potentiality whatsoever. Therefore, there can be no such composition in God.