Divine Simplicity: The Essence and Existence of God
Before we search out the answers to scientific questions with a critical and intentional inquisition, those realities can seem deeply mysterious, unintelligible, and/or complex. We begin with an educated guess, and as we experiment, our understanding can become very complex, not knowing exactly how newfound variables are involved. By the time we completely understand the causality of a phenomenon such that we can apply it to technology, it becomes simple, singular, and familiar to us. From mystification to a well-formed perspective, our perception becomes tuned to reality. As the mind approaches God, man has shown this same pattern, imagining Him to be not one but many, not loving but oppressive, etc. However, as one grows familiar with His ways, we also become familiar with His nature. Similar to the manner in which Thomas Aquinas discussed whether God’s existence is demonstrable, God is not so much known through the same method as a physical being but rather by getting to know Him like a person, i.e., watching His actions, listening to how He speaks, the content of what He says, and how He reacts to injustice. Through such encounters, Christians (post-messianic Jews, us) conclude that God’s essence is His existence, and thus He is simple and yet the underpinning of the existence of all things.
First, let us define existence and essence. Defining these terms is crucial for answering the question of diversity and unity of beings, i.e., this being appears to be different but still is a part of the singular existence; is it one (the same as others, a faint reflection of an ideal form), many (only an individual among others unrelated to anything considered like it), or a combination of the two? Existence is “that in a being which makes it a real being.”[1] Existence necessarily comes first, and it is from this principle that all beings come to be, and thus it qualitatively unites all beings. Philosophically, we can imagine the principle of existence as a sort of infinite creative energy that is always working to be utilized. This potency from which all beings become actual is one of the most easily grasped concepts of metaphysics. Essence is “that which makes a being what it is… [as] distinct from every other.”[2] Essence is the philosophical response to the reality of diverse beings. Essence answers the question of what makes a given being the being it is, in the way it is, and not another being in another way. Essence is the principle that makes giving names to people possible. It does so by channeling existence into specific/concrete/individual expression. Thereby, essence limits existence in quality, quantity, and finitude. The form is “that which determines a being to be such-and-such in any order, accidental or essential-substantial.”[3] The form is the aspect of a being that shows this being to be an individual of a category of beings (one of many) and not in another category; therefore substance (what makes it itself) is derived primarily from the form and thus accounts for the qualitative aspects of a being. The principle of form is what allows us to identify an organism through classification and to anticipate the reality of the individual from the knowledge we have of others in its genus and species. Matter (primary) is “the non-formal principle of quantitative spatial extension that functions as a potency receiving the qualitative perfection of form, limiting it to this-location-now in the space-time matrix of the material world, and also serving as the principle of continuity in the transition from one essential form to another in essential change.”[4] Matter is the quantitative potency of existence that constitutes a being’s finitude and allows for the presence/absence of a being’s accidents in individuals, even when they are naturally present in most beings of the individual’s corresponding categories. Each of these principles in Aquinas is Aristotelian at its root with a Platonic icing, since it is firstly about individuals and then about existence beyond the individual, and then beyond our experience.
Second, let us consider how essence and existence are related and what their source is. Existence actualizes the potency of prime matter by applying a form to it. As defined above, the form makes a being the kind of being it is, and the matter is what allows for its finite expression/individuation. In this way, existence is limited in its production of beings by essence. The potency of existence (not to be confused with the potency of prime matter) is restrained and defined by essence (form and matter), since all beings are individual structures. Since reality, as we detect it, is intelligible, then existence is delimited in an ordered/controlled/governed way. A being’s nature is defined by its essence and thereby is given its own potencies and is changed through causality. This must be so because of sufficient reason, i.e., since reality, as we detect it, is intelligible and there is nothing that is formless within the bounds of what we can detect (with anything from electron microscopes to the most sensitive telescopes). Every finite being was brought into existence through efficient cause, and thus all finite beings trace their existence back to a single infinite being (which we call God). Existence must be guided by a final cause, since beings do not just illogically/unfoundedly appear or disappear. What we mean by final cause at least refers to the laws of science and logic of nature that limit/direct potentialities and, as a result, restrict finite beings to only a few possible immediate futures. The final cause (guiding principles of reality combined) makes use of efficient causes (that which makes potencies into actualities) to create, change, and perpetuate reality through the application and maintenance of the essence of all beings.
Third, let us consider how essence and existence behave in God. As we begin our investigation, there are a few important considerations. The first is that God is not susceptible to change as a result of His nature. This is because God is pure actuality, and potency (which comes after act) does not exist in Him, because He is Perfection Itself, and thus He can have no matter or form.[5] Consequently, movement and composition are also not possible for Him.[6] In His mystery, He can create, sustain us in existence (Him), and even make an Incarnation of Himself experience what is human and divine concurrently without movement, composition, matter, form, etc. (without regard to what Jesus experienced in the Incarnation). Secondly, God is not found within the genus of being but rather encompasses it entirely. This is apparent from above, because we are not in the same sense, degree, or category by virtue of His infinitude and preexistence in the material world. God could never fit into categories but rather transcends everything without limit.[7] God is the same as His nature: Perfection Itself, Love Itself, Truth Itself, Beauty Itself, etc.[8] Therefore, His essence would not be captured by how we define “essence.” By consequence of His transcendent nature, His essence cannot be distinguished from His existence, and thus His essence must be His existence, since He is Existence Itself. Therefore, God must be Existence Itself, and all things that exist participate in His existence as in a closed system (God does not gain or lose existence in creation or destruction). Since God is Existence Himself, it is not possible to find Him within creation, with the exception of incarnating a Person of His Substance within it. By this fact, we (beings) must always participate in God if we are to remain real, and further, God is present among the things we detect empirically because He is their author, and of course, all participate in Him. God, as Existence Itself, must be (the Author of) the final cause that authors essences and completes the transition from non-being to being (as the pre-existent efficient cause). Insofar as He authors essences and makes things actual, He delimits potentialities. Insofar as this is true, He not only authors the present state of things but also where they can go. Since we have established that God’s essence is Existence Itself and what this means, then we understand in what fashion He is simple. In Him, there is only wholeness, a singular infinitesimal nature that encompasses all things, that cannot be found in empiricism and scarcely in pure rationality (although Plato and Aristotle were headed in a very particular direction toward which Aquinas directed their philosophies), cannot undergo change, cannot have matter and form, and is so simple that His existence is not separable from His essence.
In conclusion, God’s nature can be known to us if we approach the subject with honesty and humility. Much like many other questions, the mystery of God is a deep and enigmatic reality. However, as we move closer to knowing Him, we begin to encounter the singular truth of His existence. As we learn about the beings we empirically encounter, we begin to ask the question of why: Why this and not another? Why is there anything at all? Why does this thing appear to be its own being while so largely similar to others of its kind? As we attempt to answer these questions, we develop the concepts of “essence” and “existence” to answer the question of what makes this being this being, in a way that it is more similar to some than others and is still its own being. Without these precise concepts, we would not be able to approach the answers we seek, just as one could not complete experiments without properly calibrated equipment to conduct them, nor could one comprehend the results of the experiments without a baseline knowledge of the methods that derive the results. As we discuss changes, these definitions are challenged and developed. As we study causality, we come to realize there must be something that pre-exists finite beings. Since this being necessarily has a fixed relationship to reality as we experience it, we can conclude that God’s existence must be His essence, and He cannot be defined by the same things that define finite beings. We come to understand how He interacts with our world. Thereby, we realize His nature is simple, not consisting of many aspects but still infinitely all things insofar as His essence is Existence Itself. He is not subject to change, nor is it possible to find Him present only within empirical/material reality as other beings are.
- William Norris Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), 317.
- Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics, 159.
- Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics, 159.
- Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics, 159.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I, q. 9, a. 1, at New Advent, www.newadvent.org.; ST, I, q. 3, a. 2.
- ST, I, q. 9, a. 1.
- ST, I, q. 3, a. 5.
- ST, I, q. 3, a. 3.
