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This book provides a fundamental introduction to Aquinas's theology
of the One Creator God. Aimed at making that thought accessible to
contemporary audiences, it gives a basic explanation of his
theology while showing its compatibility with contemporary science
and its relevance to current theological issues. Opening with a
brief account of Aquinas's life, it then describes the purpose and
nature of the Summa Theologica and gives a short review of current
varieties of Thomism. Without neglecting other works, it then
focuses primarily on the discussion of the One God in the first
part of the Summa Theologica. God's transcendence and immanence is
a recurrent theme in that discussion. Evidence of God's immanent
causality in the natural world grounds Aquinas's five arguments for
the existence of God (the Five Ways) which then open onto God's
transcendence. The subsequent discussion of the divine attributes
builds on the modes of God's causality established in the Five
Ways. It also shows the need for a language of analogy to preserve
God's transcendence and prevent us from reducing God to the level
of creatures, even as qualities such as ""goodness"" and ""love,""
which we first know from creatures, are applied to God. The
discussion of God's providence and governance establishes that the
transcendent Creator God is most intimately present in creation.
God acts in all creatures in a way that does not diminish their
proper causality, but is rather its source. As there is no
contradiction between God's transcendence and immanence, so there
is no competition between the primary causality of God and the
secondary causality of creatures. Empirical science, which is
limited by its method to the secondary causality of creatures, is
shown to be compatible with the broader discipline of theology
which also embraces the primary causality of the Creator.
Our ability to talk about God's action in the world is closely tied
to our understanding of causality. With the advent of modern
Newtonian science the conception of causality narrowed, and the
discussion of divine action became locked into that contracted
understanding. There seemed to be simply no room for God to act in
the world without interfering with nature and the laws of science
that describe it. Fortunately, the idea of causality has been
greatly expanded through developments in contemporary science.
Discoveries in quantum mechanics, cosmology, chaos theory, and
biology have all led to a broader understanding of causality. These
developments have opened two fundamentally new ways for theologians
to ""unlock"" the discussion of divine action. One is to use the
developments of science themselves to speak of God's action. The
other is to speak of divine action not directly through the
theories and interpretations of science, but rather through the
broader understanding of causality that they suggest.,br> This
book explores both approaches and argues that the latter provides a
more effective way for discussing divine action. After showing that
the idea of causality in contemporary science is remarkably
reminiscent of key concepts in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, it
then retrieves those notions and applies them to the discussion of
divine action. In this way, it provides a sustained account of how
the thought of Aquinas may be used in conjunction with contemporary
science to deepen our understanding of divine action and address
such issues as creation, providence, prayer, and miracles.
This book takes the words Jesus used in each Beatitude and examines
what they meant in biblical times, how they have been interpreted
by saints and scholars throughout the centuries, and how their
timeless wisdom can be applied to life today. This book is written
for people who want to add more meaning, purpose, and joy to their
lives. It is the perfect book for people who want to explore the
riches of the Beatitudes on the road to living a happy, complete,
and blessed life.
What is "A Law of Nature"? It's a question that's vexed
philosophers and scientists ever since Descartes first coined the
term. Fr. Andrew Younan explores it in this insightful book. After
carefully reviewing the positions of Humeans and Anti-Humeans, he
employs the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas to argue for an
essentialist understanding. His study leads him back to the
beginnings of modern science and then forward to quantum mechanics.
The philosophical account of how the laws of nature arise from
observed regularities in the world is followed by a theological
discussion of the nature and action of the Lawgiver."-from the
foreword by Michael J. Dodds, OP To borrow a phrase from Galileo:
What does it mean that the story of the creation is "written in the
language of mathematics?" This book is an attempt to understand the
natural world, its consistency, and the ontology of what we call
laws of nature, with a special focus on their mathematical
expression. It does this by arguing in favor of the Essentialist
interpretation over that of the Humean and Anti-Humean accounts. It
re-examines and critiques Descartes' notion of laws of nature
following from God's activity in the world as mover of extended
bodies, as well as Hume's arguments against causality and
induction. It then presents an Aristotelian-Thomistic account of
laws of nature based on mathematical abstraction, necessity, and
teleology, finally offering a definition for laws of nature within
this framework.
Much contemporary debate surrounds the traditional teaching that
God is unchanging. It is frequently argued that an immutable God
must be cold, remote, indifferent, and uncaring - that an
unchanging God cannot be the triune God of love revealed in
Scripture. Those who reject divine immutability often single out
Thomas Aquinas as its most prominent proponent. Unfortunately, such
critics of his theology frequently misunderstand the fundamentals
of Aquinas' actual teaching.""The Unchanging God of Love"" provides
a clear and comprehensive account of what Aquinas really says about
divine immutability, presented in a way that allows his theology to
address contemporary criticisms. The book first reviews the various
ways Aquinas applies the notion of immutability to creatures,
showing that he is well aware of both the positive and negative
implications of the concept. It then analyzes all of his arguments
for divine immutability that are presented in his writings, noting
his care in determining which aspects of immutability are to be
affirmed and which are to be denied of God. It also demonstrates
the distinctiveness of Aquinas' teaching by examining the biblical,
patristic, and philosophical sources he employs.Aquinas' unchanging
God proves to be no static deity, but the dynamic, trinitarian
plenitude of knowledge, love, and life, to whom not only
immutability but also motion may in some way be attributed. A study
of 'the motion of the motionless God' reveals how the concepts of
both motion and immutability function in Aquinas' understanding of
the Trinity, the Incarnation, Creation, and Providence. Through
this study, it becomes clear that the unchanging God of Aquinas,
far from being indifferent or remote, is truly the God of
compassion and love revealed in Scripture, who shares a most
intimate friendship with the people he has created and redeemed.
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