Reflexion on the Question of God’s Existence in Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics: Conclusion

REFLEXION ON THE QUESTION OF GOD'S EXISTENCE IN CONTEMPORARY THOMISTIC METAPHYSICS PART TWO (Continued from previous number) SECTION II. REFLECTIVE JUDGMENT ON METAPHYSICS' CONSIDERATION OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD INTRODUCTION METAPHYSICS perfects the reflexion upon itself, proper to it by right, in judgments regarding the attainment of truths within the process of its own scientific discovery . Such judgments are advanced in the light of those principles which are regulative of metaphysics' nature and proportion to such truths. The consideration of God's.existence is to be judged in conformity with the principles of extension and limitation, contained in the statement that metaphysics considers God not as subject, but as principle of its subject. As is apparent from elements involved in the varied treatments of the question of God's existence, this judgment must be borne, first of all, upon the immediate approach to the question; secondly, upon the actual attainment of God's existence in metaphysics. This final section, consequently, will proceed along these lines: 1: Judgment concerning the approach to the question of God's existence. II: Judgment concerning the actual attainment of God's existence. 862 REFLEXION ON THE QUESTION OF GOD'S EXISTENCE 868 I. JuDGEMENT CoNCERNING THE APPROACH TO THE QuESTION oF GoD's EXISTENCE A. On the General Order to be Followed in This Approach The principles regulative of metaphysics' proportion to the attainment of truths about God indicate that such attainment is the science's realization of its end. For in its search for perfect knowledge of reality, the science must consider the first cause of its subject, being in common. Since this subject is to be understood in an exclusive sense, the consideration of God as principle of this subject is the sole manner of considering Him that falls within metaphysics' competence. This is the position that must guide both the order of metaphysics' approach to the question of God's existence and the judgment asserting the doctrinal place of this question. This judgment must assess this approach by calculating its validity within the process of scientific discovery made by metaphysics as it seeks its end, the perfect knowledge of its proper subject. Because of the status of the question as variously developed by Thomistic authors, this judgment will be directed first towards the general order of the approach of metaphysics to God's existence, and then to the particular issue of the relevance of the nominal definition of God in this approach. 1. Context of the question in the Summa Theologiae. The focal point, both as source and as area of controversy, for Thomist considerations of God's existence continues to be question two of the First Part of the Summa Theologiae. The familiar articles deal of course with the proposition God exists, with regard to its evidence, its demonstrability and its demonstration . To view this question in its native theological setting is of some importance to the judgment regarding its pertinence to metaphysics. About the proposition God exists (Deum esse; an Deus sit), the constant single point of reference in the question in the 364 THOMAS C. O'BRIEN Summa, St. Thomas' comments are to be recalled. From the prologue to question two, it is apparent that he locates it carefully within the framework of sacred doctrine, whose principal intention is to develop knowledge concerning God. The question of God's existence is to be dealt with in the part which considers God in Himself, and specifically in connection with the treatment of the divine essence. First among the questions to be proposed about the divine essence is: An Deus sit, does God exist? 1 From its context, then, in the Summa, question two is properly a theological question proposed concerning theology's proper subject, God. The proposition God exists occurring throughout the question, has as its subject God, the proper subject of sacred theology. This theological context of the question is not simply a matter of the logical order of the question; it includes as well its doctrinal place as properly theological. This is evident from the basis for the questions proposed concerning God's existence. The whole question of God's existence is proposed by theology, St. Thomas...