Thanks to everyone for the great answers and references.
The following paragraph is giving me some difficulties:
As to its continuance in existence, there needs to be a distinction made. God made it (shared His being with it, according to the nature that it is, whether it is a speck of dust, or a blue whale, etc.), but once created, it acts on its own power (from the nature which it received - so that a speck of dust acts like a speck of dust and a blue whale like a blue whale) and all the while, God is still sustaining it and all in existence (but not micromanaging the movements of each creature) because without His sharing His being, it wouldn’t exist in the first place.
The difference is that their dependence for existing (period) is only through, to quote a professor, “God’s good pleasure.” What they do with that existence after they have been given it (just to exist) is according to what it is (it’s nature) which includes its powers (its potential for acting as it should: a speck of dust obeys gravity; a plant eats, grows, reproduces; a monkey does that + is sensate - it can interact and be aware of its surroundings; man does all that + has the ability to reason and will [which adds more complication, as we are all aware]). So, the primary distinction is that of
being and
doing. What it
is and what it
does. When God creates, He gives
life to (fill in the blank) and it
acts according to the powers (nature) which it has been given.
Take the speck’s location as a property. God is omniscient, so he knows the location of each speck of dust and its past and future locations, and God created the laws which govern its location. Can God give existence to the speck without giving it a location? And by what means does the speck ‘set’ its location if not by the power of God? And how does the speck remember its previous location and calculate its new location, if not by the power of God?
I think that giving existence to the “speck”, considering that it is material, implies that it has to have a location, for all things which are composed of material have to have a location (as it’s part of the definition of matter).
But, the speck doesn’t set it’s own location. The speck started out as part of something else, say a human skin cell, which also came from an individual who came from parents, who came from parents, and so on. The speck didn’t just pop into reality after having not been (existed) before - it has a cause. So, the speck doesn’t have to remember its location, nor calculate a new (firstly, it’s not in its nature - it doesn’t have the power to do so) - we have laws of gravity, as well as other physical laws (and aspects of creation: fire, wind, water, etc.) which are a part of creation that will move that little piece of dust around (or not) or even have it become a part of something else (e.g. a part of the soil, which may help nurture the growth of a plant - which could possibly then be a part of the plant, something that holds it together as a whole).
I don’t think that God “micromanages” the speck - He does have knowledge of its location, past, present, and future, for sure - but I don’t think that He is, by His “finger”, if you will, moving the little speck around wherever He wants it to be. Not that it’s outside of His power, for He can certainly do so; but normally, I think that what is created is moving on its own power (which in this case is by being moved from without).
I again recommend Fr. W. Norris Clarke’s book,
The One and the Many, for a (sometimes tough) introduction to Thomistic realism.
for awhile - I forgot about this post.