Tag Archives: divine simplicity

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

Posted on 4 November 2022 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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The Absolute Freedom of the Simple Life

Posted on 16 October 2022 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In the preceding article, 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 enslavement of Deity to necessity? McCann … Continue reading →

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An Utterly Dynamic State of Affairs: The God Who Is His Creating

Posted on 10 October 2022 by Fr Aidan Kimel

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

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Divine Simplicity: Is God a Slave to his Nature?

Posted on 9 October 2022 by Fr Aidan Kimel

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 all … Continue reading →

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Division of Being in St Gregory of Nyssa’s ‘Contra Eunomium’

Posted on 29 March 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Robert F. Fortuin The ultimate division of all that exists is made by the line between ‘created’ and ‘uncreated,’ the one being regarded as a cause of what has come into being, the other as coming into being thereby. … Continue reading →

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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 →

Posted in Hugh McCann | Tagged , , , , , , , | 23 Comments