Monthly Archives: September 2018

An Utterly Simple State of Affairs

Posted on 30 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

If God is the Absolute who stops all the bucks, the answer to our most profound existential and metaphysical questions, then he must be characterized by an absence of parts and potency; otherwise, classical theists maintain, we would still find … Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh McCann | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

“Let there be no sin that seems small in your eyes, and that you treat lightly, as though it did no great harm to our souls”

Posted on 29 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Do you not tremble when you hear God saying to you day after day throughout the whole of divine Scripture: “Let no evil word come from your mouth. Indeed I tell you that you will have to answer for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Citations | Comments Off on “Let there be no sin that seems small in your eyes, and that you treat lightly, as though it did no great harm to our souls”

On the Putative Threat of Modal Collapse Within the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity

Posted on 25 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Alexander Earl Prompted by Dionysius’s doctrine of God and its Neoplatonic foundations, the question of Divine freedom has been the subject of theological reflection on this blog for the past few months. That it would become a sustained avenue of … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexander Earl, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

William Desmond on the Hyperbole of Being

Posted on 25 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel
Posted in Philosophical Theology | 6 Comments

Hugh McCann and the Simplicity of Divinity

Posted on 24 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The late Hugh J. McCann characterizes his book Creation and the Sovereignty of God as an exercise in perfect being theology: “I wish to defend the thesis that God is an absolutely perfect being, who as creator exercises complete sovereignty over … Continue reading →

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Mysteries and Problems

Posted on 22 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“Mysteries can never be solved. The deeper you enter into a mystery, the deeper the mystery itself gets. Nor can you think your way out of a mystery, because to do so is to reduce the mystery to the standing … Continue reading →

Posted in Herbert McCabe & Friends | 3 Comments

Aquinas and Divine Freedom: God Might Have Willed Otherwise

Posted on 18 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Finally we come to the contentious question driving this series on Aquinas: Is the divine act of creation truly free? 7) God wills the world freely and non-necessarily (SCG 81–83, 88). While it may appear that if the metaphysically simple and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aquinas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 53 Comments

Aquinas and Divine Freedom: The Willing God

Posted on 16 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

If God is eternal, immutable, and incomposite, how is it that his creation of the cosmos is not a necessary and thus unfree and fettered act? St Thomas Aquinas addresses this question in his Summa Contra Gentiles. In the previous … Continue reading →

Posted in Aquinas | 9 Comments