Thomas Aquinas On Privation (PhD Edit)

Venice: trekearth

Preface:

My work week ends early as I am taking today, Friday, off to see Rush at Rogers Arena. This will be the tenth time viewing Rush and perhaps the last, as they are ending major touring.

I thought I would once again look through my MPhil/PhD theses material for something not fully presented previously and I had dealt with privation previously mostly from the perspective of Augustine and John Hick that were major and significant PhD exemplars. 

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Thomas Aquinas (1261)(1920) writes in Summa Theologiae that evil was only possible from a corruption of the good.[1]  Leibniz noted that evil itself only comes from privation.[2]

Since evil cannot exist by itself[3] it would be impossible, in Augustine’s view, for all good to be removed from the nature of a being as there would therefore be no entirely, purely evil entity.[4]  He went on to say that an incorruptible nature, such as that of God, would be far better than a corruptible nature,[5]  but for the corruptible nature to exist it must possess some goodness.[6] 

John Hick concludes that Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) were not content with merely establishing a Biblical doctrine of God’s goodness and the related goodness of his creation.[7]  

Augustine and Aquinas were influenced by Neo-Platonic thought and equated being with goodness, so that greater existence (existence without evil) meant greater goodness.[8] Aquinas postulates that everything desired as an end is perfection,[9] and that since every nature desires its own being and perfection, this is good.[10]  Therefore evil cannot signify a being, form, or nature, as evil is not desirable and is only possible by corrupting the good.[11] 

It appears that Hick’s point is reasonable,[12] at least to the extent that greater goodness does not equal greater existence.[13]  This is difficult to measure because as discussed previously in this work, much of traditional theology states that all creation has been corrupted.[14]  

We are therefore comparing imperfect creatures that are in existence with hypothetical perfect creatures, and we are attempting to judge whether or not these hypothetical creatures would have greater existence because they were perfectly good.  This becomes a very speculative procedure, and I agree with Hick that the Augustinian view of God’s goodness is accurate in regard to human goodness being secondary to God’s, as finite beings contain finite goodness.[15]  Hick, however, denies the metaphysical doctrine that human beings were created good,[16] and I would respectfully differ siding with Augustinian and Reformed traditions.[17]    

AQUINAS, THOMAS (1261)(1920) Summa Theologica, Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, London, Fathers of the English Dominican Province.

http://www.op.org/summa/

AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

           

AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130104.htm

AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F. Shaw,  Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

http://www.knight.org/advent

AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.

AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.html

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.html

CALVIN, JOHN (1540)(1973) Romans and Thessalonians, Translated by Ross Mackenzie, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

CALVIN, JOHN (1550)(1978) Concerning Scandals, Translated by John W. Fraser, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

CALVIN, JOHN (1552)(1995) Acts, Translated by Watermark, Nottingham, Crossway Books. 

CALVIN, JOHN (1553)(1952) Job, Translated by Leroy Nixon, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

CALVIN, JOHN (1554)(1965) Genesis, Translated by John King, Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust.

HICK, JOHN (1970) Evil and The God of Love, London, The Fontana Library.

HICK, JOHN (1978) ‘Present and Future Life’, Harvard Theological Review, Volume 71, Number 1-2, January-April, Harvard University.

HICK, JOHN (1981) Encountering Evil, Stephen T. Davis (ed.),  Atlanta, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN (1993)  ‘Afterword’ in GEIVETT, R. DOUGLAS (1993) Evil and the Evidence for God, Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

HICK, JOHN (1993) The Metaphor of God Incarnate, Louisville, Kentucky, John Know Press.

HICK, JOHN (1994) Death and Eternal Life, Louisville, Kentucky, John Knox Press.

HICK, JOHN (1999) ‘Life after Death’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press.

LEIBNIZ, G.W. (1710)(1998) Theodicy, Translated by E.M. Huggard Chicago, Open Court Classics.

SCHELLING, F.W.J. (1845)(1936) Schelling, Of Human Freedom, Translated by James Gutmann, The Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago.

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[1] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[2] Leibniz (1710)(1998: 219).  Schelling also discusses this view of Leibniz.  Schelling (1845)(1936: 45).   

[3] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).  Leibniz (1710)(1998: 219). 

[4] Augustine (421)(1998: Chapter 13: 7).

[5] Augustine (421)(1998: Chapter 13: 7).

[6] Augustine (421)(1998: Chapter 13: 7).

[7] Hick (1970: 176).

[8] Hick (1970: 176).  Augustine (388-395)(1964: 117).  Augustine (421)(1998: Chapter 13: 7).  Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[9] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[10] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[11] Aquinas (1261)(1920: 1.48.1).

[12] Hick (1970: 62).

[13] Although I reason God is infinitely good and Satan, for example, can at best be finitely evil. But satanic power can conceivably grow.

[14] Within Augustinian and Reformed models.

[15] Hick (1970: 178).

[16] Hick in Davis (2001: 40-41).

[17] Augustine (388-395)(1964: 33).  Calvin (1539)(1998: Book II, Chapter 2, 7).

Rome: Facebook

Also on Privation

June 28, 2007 Augustine and Hick

November 19, 2008 Augustine and Hick