Did Thomas Aquinas Defend the Possibility of an Eternally Created World? (The De aeternitate mundi Revisited)

Did Thomas Aquinas Defend the Possibility of an Eternally Created World? (The De aeternitate mundi Revisited) JOHN F. WIPPEL As is WELL KNOWN, Thomas Aquinas repeatedly found wanting all argumentation offered in support of eternity of the world. So great was his respect for Aristotle, however , that at times he seized upon a passage from the latter's Topics in order to suggest that the Stagirite himself may not have really intended to demonstrate the eternity of the world, but only to show that argumentation presented by others against its eternity was not demonstrative. ~But later in his career, while commenting on the Physics , Thomas appears to reject this more benign reading of Aristotle. 2 As is equally well known, Thomas also dismissed as inconclusive argumentation offered by his Christian contemporaries in support of creation in time. In sum, then, it appears that in Thomas's eyes one cannot demonstrate either eternity or noneternity of the world. 3 See Scriptum super libros Sententiarum, Bk. II, d. 1, q. 1, a. 5 (ed. Pierre Mandonnet 4 vols. [Paris: Lethielleux, 1929-47]), 2:33-34: "Dico ergo quod ad neutram partem quaestionis sunt demonstrationes, sed probabiles vel sophisticae rationes ad utrumque. Et hoc significant verba Philosophi dicentis, I Top., cap. vii, quod sunt quaedam problemata de quibus rationem non habemus, ut utrum mundus sit aeternus; unde hoe ipse demonstrare nunquam intendit.... " For Aristotle see Topics I, chap. 11 (104b12-17). Thomas's apparent source for this reading of Aristotle was Moses Maimonides. See his The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. Shlomo Pines (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), II, chap. 15, p. 292. On this text in Aristotle and Maimonides' interpretation of it see Ernst Behler, Die Ewigkeit der Welt (Miinchen: Verlag Ferdinand Sch6ningh, 1965), pp. 54-55,260-61. 2 See In VIII Physic., lect. 2, in In otto libros Physicorum Aristotelis Expositio (Turin and Rome: Marietti, 1954), n. 986, pp. 509-10. "Quidam vero frustra conantes Aristotelem ostendere non contra fidem loeutum esse, dixerunt quod Aristoteles non intendit hic probare quasi verum, quod motus sit perpetuus; sed inducere rationem ad utramque partem, quasi ad rem dubiam: quod ex ipso modo proeedendi frivolum apparet. Et praeterea, perpetuitate temporis et motus quasi principio utitur ad probandum primum principium esse, ethic in octavo et in XII Metaphys.; unde manifestum est, quod supponit hoe tanquam probatum." Cf. In XII Met., 5, in In duodecim libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis expositio (Turin and Rome: Marietti, 1950), nn. 2496-97, p. 584. James Weisheipl dates the Commentary on the Physics 1269-70 and that on the Metaphysics 1269-72. See his Friar Thomas d'Aquino (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974), pp. 375, 379. Unless otherwise indicated, I shall follow b.isdating for the other Thomistic works to be considered below. 3 For the Latin text and discussion of many of Thomas's treatments of eternity of the world see Anton Antweiler, Die Anfangslosigkeit der Welt nach Thomas von Aquin und Kant (Trier: Paulinus Verlag, 1961), 2 vols. For English translations of many of these texts as well as important selections from Bonaventure and Siger of Brabant on this same topic and for a discussion of the same see Cyril Vollert, Lottie Kendzierski, and Paul Byrne, St. Thomas Aquinas, Siger of Brabant, St. Bonaventure, On the Eternity of the World (Milwaukee : Marquette University Press, 1964). For some other discussions of this in Thomas and for further references see Fernand Van Steenberghen, La philosophie au Xllle si?cle (Louvain: Publications Universi- [211 22 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The Christian can only accept the noneternal character of the same as a matter of religious belief. Eternity of the world was obviously a much discussed point during Thomas's time at the University of Paris and for some years thereafter. Condemnation of propositions relating to the same in 1270 and 1277 attest to this, 4 as do discussions of this topic by Henry of Ghent in 1276, 5 by Giles of Rome in apparent connection with his rehabilitation in the Theology Faculty in 1285, 6 and by Godfrey of Fontaines in his Quodlibet 2 of 1286.7 Some years ago Edgar Hocedez drew attention to some important passages in Giles of...