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St Thomas Aquinas and the Motion of the Motionless God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Michael J. Dodds
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In the last Sunday homily that he delivered before his death in March, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador spoke of the turbulence and changes convulsing his country, but also pointed out to his people their source of stability and balance in the midst of a changing world: ‘May we have one thing firmly anchored in the soul: our faith in Jesus Christ, the God of history. He does not change.’ His words echo the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the poetry of the mystics, and the daily prayer of the Church. The Second Vatican Council teaches that ‘beneath all changes there are many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, yes, and forever.’ St. Teresa of Avila spoke in her poetry of the God who ‘never changes’ and ‘alone suffices’. The Church prays that in the midst of life’s changes God may ‘strengthen us through his immutability’. The common insight in all of these examples is that the God of Christian faith is a God who does not change.

In our own time, there are many who do not share that insight. They fail to see how an unchanging God can be the object of our Christian faith, hope, love, and prayer. Their concern can perhaps be best addressed by returning to the teaching of that theologian who is recognised both by those who defend and by those who question the doctrine of divine immutability as the best representative of the authentic teaching of the Church on this subject: St. Thomas Aquinas.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 68 , Issue 805 , May 1987 , pp. 233 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 ‘Homilia del 23 de marzo de 1980′, published in Nadie muerepara siempre, (Aires, Buenos, Argentina, 1983), p. 155Google Scholar.

2 Gaudium et Spes, nr. 10, in The Documents of Vatican II, Abbot, W. S.J., ed., (New York, 1966), p. 208Google Scholar.

3 St. Teresa of Avila, ‘Nadete turbe’, in Obrascompletas(Madrid, 1965), Vol. 2, p.960Google Scholar.

4 See evening prayer for Wed. evening of Week I in Liturgia Horarum (Vatican, 1972)Google Scholar.

5 Moltmann, J., The Crucified God, Wilson, R. and Bowden, J., tr. (New York, 1974) p. 222, 274Google Scholar; Stokes, W., ‘Whitehead's Challenge to Theistic Realism’, New Scholasticism 38 (1964) 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woollcombe, K.J., ‘The Pain of God’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 20 (1967) 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hallman, Joseph, ‘The Emotions of God in the Theology of St. Augustine’, Recherches de thiologie ancienne et mtdiival 51 (1984) 5–6.Google Scholar

6 St. Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum super libros sententiarum (Sent.) IV, d. 46, Q. 2, a. 1, qc. 1, ad. 2. (All translations are mine.) A discussion of the connotations of immutability and Thomas’ awareness of them may be found in my The Unchanging God of Love: A Study of the Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas on Divine Immutability in View of Certain Contemporary Criticism of this Doctrine (Fribourg, Switzerland, 1986)Google Scholar. See also Trethowan, Illtyd, Process Theology and the Christian Tradition (Still River, Mass., 1985)Google Scholar.

7 Summa Iheologiae (ST) I, Q. 2, a. 3, co.

8 ST I, 4, 3, ad. 4.

9 Sen/. I, 8, 3, 1, exp. text.

10 ST I, 2, 3, co.; ad. 2; Q. 9, 1.

11 Sent. I, 8, 3, 1, sc. 2.

12 Compendium I, c. 3—4.

13 Summa contra gentiles (SCG) I, c. 13—14.

14 ST I, 2, 3, ad. 2.

15 See Sri, 3, prologue.

16 Depotencia (Depot.) Q. 7, 2, ad. 9.

17 On simplicity, see Sent. 1,8,3, 1, ad. 3; ad. 4; In Dionysii de divinis nominibus (In de div. nom.) IX, lect. 2, nr. 816—817. On perfection, see Sent. I, 3, 1, 1, div. text; 1,8,3, 1, exp. text; In librum Boethiide trinitate (De trin.) Q. 5,4, co.; Depot. Q. 3, 5, co. On pure actuality, see Sent. I, 8, 3, I, exp. text.; a. 1, co.; De trin. Q. 5, 4, co.; De pot. Q. 6, 6, co.

18 John of Damascus, Defide orthodoxa I, 9 (PG 94, 836), quoted in ST I, 13, 11, co.

19 Geiger, L.‐B. OP, ‘Saint Thomas et la metaphysique ?Aristote’, in Aristoteetsaint Thomas ? Aquin, Moraux, P., et. al., eds., (Louvain, 1957), p. 206Google Scholar.

20 ST I, 4, 2, co.; Q. 9, 1, co.

21 ST I–II, 31, 2, ad, 1, quoting Aristotle, DeAnima III, 7 (431a 6). See also ST I, 9, 1, ad. 1.

22 See ST I, 27, 1—4; Q. 42, 5.

23 ST I, 27, 4, co.

24 ST I, 4, 3, co.; Q. 9, 1, ad. 2.

25 ST I, Q. 43, aa. 1—3; a. 5; III, 1, 1, ad. 1; Sent. I, 15, 1, 1, ad. 1; ad. 4; Q. 4, a. 1, co.; d. 16, 1, 1, ad. 1; SCG II, c. 1, nr. 2—3 (marietti, nr. 853—854); IV, c. 23, nr. 4 (Marietti, nr. 3594). See also Weinandy, Thomas G., Does God Change? (Still River, Mass., 1985)Google Scholar, esp. chapter 3.

26 In de div. nom. IX, lect. 4, nr. 840–841; IV, lect. 10, nr. 437; ST I, 20, 2, ad. 1.

27 ST I, 9, 1.co.

28 ST I, 20, 2, ad. 1.

29 In de div. nom. IX, lect. 4, nr. 841.

30 In psalmos XLIII, nr. 2.