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Servant19
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If Gods essence is substantial, and His substance is present TO all things as an agent, then He is not IN all things then Vico. An agent present TO all things remains separate from all things. As Baha’i theology states, “the essence of God surrounds all things”For the first I posted:
- You say “not all essences are substantial”. Is Gods essence substantial?
Substance is a being whose essence (nature) requires it to exist in itself (a being in itself). It is distinguished from accident, whose essence (nature) is to exist in a substance.
Adam (primary substance) is a human (secondary substance, or universal). God is a primary substance, but has no secondary substance.
The essence of God is substantial. Primary essences are substances. Secondary essences (universals a.k.a., accidents) are not substances (e.g., an essence of white and an essence of musical). Non-substances are accidents, and accidents are ontologically dependent on substances.
A thing could be a substance or not; per Aristotle, things in the world are not beings because they stand under some genus, being, but rather because they all stand in a relation to the primary being, which is substance. Aristotle Metaphysics has ten categories of objects in the world to which words correspond (1) substance; (2) quantity; (3) quality; (4) relatives; (5) somewhere; (6) sometime; (7) being in a position; (8) having; (9) acting; and (10) being acted upon.
For the second I posted:
- You and St.Thomas say that “God is said to be in all things by essence” yet St.Thomas also states " it ought not to be said that God is in things by essence". Can you please explain this?
“His substance is present to all things as the cause of their being” means God is in all things as an agent. An agent is present to that upon which it works since an “agent must be joined to that wherein it acts immediately and touch it by its power”. God is not in all things as part of their essence, nor as an accident.
In Summa Theologica, the style of to present an objection, and then answer it. St. Thomas presents the objectioon with “it ought not to be said that God is in things by essence, presence and power” and answers the objection with “God is said to be in all things … by His own essence; because His substance is present to all things as the cause of their being”.
The key is that God’s substance is “present to all things as the cause of their being”. God is the Creator. This is a specific rejection of pantheism and panentheism.
Is this compatible with your understanding of Catholic teaching?
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