Actus purus and creation ex nihilo

[SalamKhan]

Hi,

Correct me if I’m wrong, but according to the doctrine of divine simplicity, the attributes and operations (actions) of God are identical to His essence (hence, God is ‘pure act’). This would make the actions of God one and timeless (the Maturidi theological school of Sunni Islam also hold this view except they believe that the actions are identical to His attributes, which are in turn distinct to His essence). I’m curious as to how this can be reconciled with creation ex nihilo and a temporal universe.

Thanks.

 

[PluniaZ]

What a coincidence, I was just reading about this.

19th century Catholic theologian Matthias Scheeben explains the relation of the attributes to God’s essence as follows:

“All the Divine attributes which designate something necessarily contained in God, designate the Divine Substance Itself, and not something distinct from It, inhering in it after the manner of an accident. This principle applies to the attributes of Unity, Truth, Beauty; and also to the Divine essential Activity—such as Self-consciousness and Self-love; because all of these necessarily belong to the integrity of the Divine Essence and Nature. It is also true of the Divine intellectual and volitional acts concerning contingent things; for although these acts are not essential to God, still they are not accidents of His Substance, but are the Divine Substance Itself as related to contingent objects. But the principle is true only to a certain extent in the case of attributes which express Divine external action—that is, active influence on creatures; because the power and will to act are in God, whereas the action itself (actio transiens), and still more its effect, are external to Him. Lastly, this principle cannot be applied to attributes expressing a relation between creatures and God—such as Creator, Redeemer, Rewarder; because these relations are not in God but outside Him. They need not belong to Him from all eternity, as may also be said of attributes designating Divine external actions, because their basis is not eternal. Essential attributes, on the contrary, and also attributes expressing something in God, even if not essential, belong to Him from all eternity. All this is the common teaching of the Fathers and theologians and is based upon the dogmas of the Simplicity and Unchangeableness of God.”

Scheeben, Matthias Joseph. A MANUAL OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGY: Based on Dogmatik (Complete in Two Volumes) (Kindle Location 3291). Lex De Leon Publishing. Kindle Edition.

 

[reggieM]

Creation ex nihilo are from the idea of God which is eternal. The creation of time is not an event limited by time (since it comes from the eternal, unchanged essence of God). So, creation does not affect the simplicity of God’s being, since there is no before and after creation to change His nature and essence.

It would be the same with anything that God wills within the temporal creation. God does not wait for something to happen and then will something in response. Creation is made to appear for our sake that way. And we do have true freedom to act in ways that are not determined by God - we have the freedom to choose. But our choices do not change the essence of God.

 

[thinkandmull]

Our choices don’t change God’s nature because they are not essential to His nature

 

[Richca]

Hi,

Correct me if I’m wrong, but according to the doctrine of divine simplicity, the attributes and operations (actions) of God are identical to His essence (hence, God is ‘pure act’). This would make the actions of God one and timeless (the Maturidi theological school of Sunni Islam also hold this view except they believe that the actions are identical to His attributes, which are in turn distinct to His essence). I’m curious as to how this can be reconciled with creation ex nihilo and a temporal universe.

Thanks.

The creation of the temporal universe depended on God’s wisdom or intellect and will. Now, God’s will is eternal but he did not will from all eternity that the world should be eternal but that it should have a beginning and that he would create it when from all eternity he so willed to create it. So, God’s will did not change when he created the temporal universe because he created it when from all eternity he willed to create it.