scholarly journals TO THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE: The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity and its Interrelatedness to the Economy of God in Salvation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
Robb Lawrence Torseth
Keyword(s):  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Theology Proper

It is a contemporary trend by many theologians and philosophers to view the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity (from hereon, DDS) as an unnecessary, illogical, and problematic addendum of scholasticism to theology proper. However, upon further investigation, this doctrine is found to be prevalent and implied in biblically orthodox ontology. Furthermore, it may be shown that the DDS bears potentially broad ramifications to how we understand the Trinity (given that it proceeds from simplicity in logical priority) and, subsequently, how we understand the initial, sustained, and perfected work of God in salvation through grace. Therefore, contrary to current theological trends, it may be stated that the DDS is, in fact, a centrifugal, practical, and even indispensablepart of the Christian understanding of how we know God. 

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-67
Author(s):  
Richard Cross
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
William Of Ockham ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Do So

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham engage with Aquinas’ thought in fundamentally negative ways. They never make distinctively Thomist positions their own, and when they use Aquinas’ thought, they do so merely as a way of sharpening their own theologies through the dialectical process of rejecting an opponent’s view. This chapter first considers the role of Aquinas’ thought in Scotus’ teaching on religious language and univocity, divine simplicity and omnipresence, the Trinity, cognitive theory, the question of the first object of cognition, angelic individuation, the beatific vision, the plurality of substantial forms, free will, and normative ethics. A second section discusses Aquinas’ place in Ockham’s teaching on common natures, intuitive cognition, divine ideas, and the nature of grace.

Classical Theism and the Doctrine of the Trinity

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Charles J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Classical Theism ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

It is well known that Augustine, Boethius, Anselm and Aquinas participated in a tradition of philosophical theology which determined God to be simple, perfect, immutable and timelessly eternal. Within the parameters of such an Hellenic understanding of the divine nature, they sought a clarification of one of the fundamental teachings of their Christian faith, the doctrine of the Trinity. These classical theists were not dogmatists, naively unreflective about the very possibility of their project. Aquinas, for instance, explicitly worried about and fought to dispel the seeming contradiction between the philosophical requirement of divine simplicity and the creedal insistence on a threefold personhood in God.1 Nevertheless, doubts abound. Philosophers otherwise friendly to Classical Theism (CT) still remain unsure about the coherence of affirming a God that is at once absolutely simple and triune.2 A less friendly critic has even suggested that the theory of divine simplicity pressured Augustine and his medieval followers away from recognizing that real complexity within the life of God which Trinitarianism expresses.3

The Divine Simplicity in St Thomas

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
The Trinity

In the Summa Theologiae ‘simplicity’ is treated as pre–eminent among the terms which may properly be used to describe the divine nature. The Question in which Thomas demonstrates that God must be ‘totally and in every way simple’ (1.3.7) immediately follows the five proofs of God's existence, preceding the treatment of His other perfections, and being frequently used as the basis for proving them. Then in Question 13 ‘univocal predication' is held to be ‘impossible between God and creatures’ so that at best ‘some things are said of God and creatures analogically’ because of the necessity of using ‘various and multiplied conceptions’ derived from our knowledge of created beings to refer to what in God is simple for ‘the perfections flowing from God to creatures… pre–exist in God unitedly and simply, whereas in creatures they are received divided and multiplied’ (1.13.5). In line with this, in the De Potentia Dei the treatment of analogical predication is integrated into that of ‘the Simplicity of the Divine Essence’ (Q 7). Moreover, it lies at the root of Thomas's rejection of any possibility of a Trinitarian natural theology such as, for instance, St Anselm or Richard of St Victor had attempted to develop, on the grounds that ‘it is impossible to attain to the knowledge of the Trinity by natural reason’ since ‘we can know what belongs to the unity of the essence, but not what belongs to the distinction of the persons’ (1.32.1). Even modern minds sympathetic to Thomas have clearly found it difficult to understand his concern for the divine simplicity: in his Aquinas Lecture Plantinga speaks for many in stating that it is ‘a mysterious doctrine’ which is ‘exceedingly hard to grasp or construe’ and ‘it is difficult to see why anyone should be inclined to accept it’. Not surprisingly, therefore, some of the most widely read twentieth–century commentators on Aquinas have paid little attention to it. Increased interest has recently been shown in it, but a number of discussions pay insufficient attention to the historical context out of which Thomas's interest in the doctrine emerged, and consequently tend to misconstrue its nature.

Triniteit en etiek: Van ’n relasionele God tot ’n etiek van die Ander

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rian Venter
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Critical Resistance ◽  
The Trinity

Die artikel ondersoek die vraag of die nuwe waardering vir die leerstuk van die Triniteit enige beduidende etiese implikasies inhou. Meer spesifiek word gekyk of die identiteit van God in die Christelike geloofstradisie nuwe etiese sensitiwiteite kan open. Die sogenaamde Trinitariese Renaissance word kortliks gekarteer en die denke van die teoloë Zizioulas en Moltmann word beskryf om die keer na relasionaliteit te illustreer. Kritiek teen ’n sosiaal-georiënteerde Triniteitsleer word verreken, maar word nie as finaal en afdoende beskou nie. Twee denkers – Volf en Cunningham – val in die soeklig en hoe hulle teologie spesifiek vanuit die Trinitariese belydenis etiese vrae aanspreek en meer spesifiek die probleem van die Ander. Die artikel se gevolgtrekking is dat die Triniteitsleer vrugbare perspektiewe tot die publieke diskoers oor alteriteit kan open. Die Christelike verstaan van God kan ’n beduidende bydrae tot hierdie aktuele vraagstelling lewer. Die Ander word gesien as konstituerend vir eie identiteit; en terselfdertyd word identiteit juis verwesentlik deur ’n omhelsing en versorging van die Ander.Trinity and ethics: From a relational God to an ethic of the Other. The article addresses the question whether the new appreciation for the doctrine of the Trinity could generate significant ethical implications. More specifically it investigates whether the identity of God in the Christian tradition does open new ethical sensibilities. The so-called Trinitarian Renaissance is briefly mapped, and the views of the theologians Zizioulas and Moltmann are described for an illustration of the turn to relationality. Critical resistance to a socially oriented doctrine of the Trinity is taken into account, but it is not considered as final and persuasive. Two theologians – Volf and Cunningham – are studied and how their theology addresses from a Trinitarian perspective ethical issues and specifically the problem of the Other. The article concludes that the doctrine of the Trinity could make a contribution to the public discourse on alterity. The Christian understanding of God could open avenues for understanding a most urgent contemporary problem. The Other is viewed as constitutive for own identity; and at the same time identity is realised by the embrace and care of the Other.

Mystical Union

2020 ◽  
pp. 403-421
Author(s):  
Bernard McGinn
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
Final Model ◽  
Mystical Union ◽  
Biblical Foundations ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter follows the evolution of the three main models of Christian understanding of mystical union from the biblical foundations down to the crisis of mysticism at the end of the seventeenth century. Although the technical term ‘mystical union’ was rarely used for most of this period, many Christian thinkers spoke about becoming one with God through grace. Three main models emerged. The first is unitas spiritus (union of spirit), based on 1 Corinthians 6: 17, according to which God and the person unite in spirit by willing the same thing. This was often expressed in erotic terms. The second model is Trinitarian—a union in which a human comes to share in the inner life of the three Persons of the Trinity. The final model is the union of indistinction in which union is understood as a merging with God that leaves all distinction behind, at least on some level.

God

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale B. Martin
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

Even if ancient biblical writers did not have the philosophical training to have anticipated later Christian doctrines such as the transcendence or immanence of God, divine simplicity, even the doctrine of the trinity, postmodern Christians should not be constrained by those historical limits from reading the New Testament to arrive at robust, though sometimes complex, theologies of the nature of God and of what it means to say, in the 21st century, “I believe in God.”

Divine persons as relational qua-objects

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT C. KOONS
Keyword(s):  
Strong Version ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Kit Fine ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Qua Objects ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractIs the Christian doctrine of the Trinity consistent with a very strong version of the thesis of divine simplicity? Yes, so long as the simple divine nature is a relational nature, a nature that could be characterized in terms of such relations as knowing and loving. This divine nature functions simultaneously as agent, patient, and action: as knower, known and knowledge, and lover, beloved, and love. I will draw on work on qua-objects by Kit Fine and Nicholas Asher and on my own account of relational facts to elucidate this model more fully.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document