Tag Archives: divine simplicity

Perfect Being Theology, Theistic Personalism, and the Eclipse of the Apophatic

Posted on 19 November 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Readers of this blog will by now be well-acquainated with the term “theistic personalism.” It was coined by Brian Davies to describe what he believes to be a problematic understand­ing of divinity, commonly advanced by analytic philosophers. He specifically names … Continue reading →

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Divine Simplicity: Into the Negative Zone

Posted on 25 August 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by David Mahfood, Ph.D. Introduction A clear set of premises leading to a conclusion is a remarkable intellectual gift, for then one’s options are clear: accept the conclusion, reject one or more premises, or find a fallacy in the way … Continue reading →

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The Absolute Freedom of the Simple Life

Posted on 2 October 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In the preceding article, “An Utterly Simple State of Affairs,” we were left with questions about divine freedom: specifically, if the act of creation of essential to the divine being, as Hugh McCann claims, how does this not entail the … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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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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 →

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Dionysian Ponderings: Divine Knowledge, Creation, and Modal Collapse

Posted on 26 August 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

How does the infinite Creator know the contingent realities he has brought into existence without compromising his metaphysical simpleness? Or as St Dionysius the Areopagite asks: How is God to comprehend something among the intelligibles since he does not have … Continue reading →

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