Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:03:00.667Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The idea of God

from III - God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Jean-Luc Marion
Edited by
Daniel Garber  and
Michael Ayers
Daniel Garber
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Michael Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

POSING THE QUESTION

The seventeenth century marks a significant moment in thought concerning the definition of God. This is the period in which the radical position of subjectivity is replaced by the impersonal recognition of transcendence as a point of departure of philosophical reflection – God is now a term in a demonstration, and no longer the assumed goal of a journey towards Him. And philosophy, until this time explicitly constituted by metaphysics (metaphysica, philosophia prima, then ontologia), has to transpose into the new domain of rationality certain problems and concepts previously treated only by revealed theology (theologia, sacra scientia). This twofold transformation is nicely illustrated by the problem of the essence of God: from Descartes on, metaphysical discussions of the characteristics and attributes of God consist in transposing and translating, so to speak, into purely philosophical terms theological debates on the divine names as they arise until the Scriptures, through the intermediation of the formulations given of them by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (fifth century?) in his celebrated treatise De divinis nominibus.

These innovations can best be understood in their context, a set of themes from Thomas Aquinas. Despite the long gap between the thirteenth century and the seventeenth, Thomas's views remained decisive for several reasons. The first was the renewal of the ‘Thomistic’ school: notably through the works of Capreolus, Sylvestre de Ferrare, and especially Cardinal Thomas de Vio, called Cajetan (1469–1534). These Thomists widely influenced university and ecclesiastical life, in particular the work of the Council of Trent (1545–63), whose sessions were presided over by a copy of the Summa theologiae placed upon the altar.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy , pp. 263 - 304
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bacon, , Cogitata et Visa, in Bacon 1857–74, vol. 3.
Bérulle, Discours, VI, 6 1846.
Canfeld, Lettre contenant le réponse à un doute touchant l'objet de la volonté de Dieu, 1982.Google Scholar
Canfeld, Règle de perfection, L'exercise de la volonté de Dieu, VII, 1982.
Canfeld, Règle de perfection, III, 1, 1982.
de Sales, FrançoisTraité de l'amour de Dieu, II, I, V, 6. 1969
de Sales, FrançoisTraité de l'amour de Dieu, respectively, XII, II, 1969
de Sales, FrançoisTraité de l'amour de Dieu, V, 7. 1969
de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon, FrançoisTraité de l'exisitence et des attributs de Dieu, I, 2, Fénelon 1854, vol. I.
Desgabets, Traité de l'indéfectibilité des créatures (ca. 1654), 1983.Google Scholar
Fontialis, J.De idea mirabilis matheseôs entis (Fontialis 1740))Google Scholar
Galilei, Il, saggiatore, VI, 1929–39, vol. 6.
Galilei, , Diaolgo dei massimi sistemi, I, 1929–39, vol. 7.
Gassendi, , Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos, II, III, a. 9 in Gassendi, 1658, vol. 3.
Gibieuf, treatise, De libertate Dei et creaturae, published in Paris in 1630Google Scholar
Kepler, Harmonice mundi, 1937–, vol. 6.
Kepler, ‘Imo ideae quantitatum sunt erantque Deo coaeternae, Deus ipse.’ (Mysterium cosmographicum, Kepler 1937–, vol. 8).Google Scholar
Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicum, II, 1937–, vol. I.
La Mothe le Vayer, Dialogues faits à l' imitation des anciens, 1988.Google Scholar
Lyon, , Traité de l'amour de Dieu, 1616, II, I, quoted from Sales, François 1969.
Pierre, CartesianRégis, Sylvain, Cours entier de philosophie ou système générale selon les principes de M. Descartes concernant la logique, le métaphysique, la physique, at la morale, Régis 1691a, vol. 1.
Poiret, Pierre, Cogitationum rationalium de Deo, anima et malo libri quattuor (Poiret 1677))Google Scholar
Revius, J.Suarez repurgatus (Revius 1643)).Google Scholar
Rodis-Lewis, Traité de l'indéfectibilité des créatures 1979 and 1981.Google Scholar
Thomas, AquinasIn Dionysii de divinis nominbus, IV, 21, 1927, vol. 2

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×