Participation as God’s Indwelling

doi:10.1017/9781009440028.012

10 - Participation as God’s Indwelling

Aquinas’ Neoplatonic Systematisation of Aristotle for Participation in the Divine

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2024

Wayne Hankey†

Edited by

Douglas Hedley and

Daniel J. Tolan

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Douglas Hedley: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Daniel J. Tolan: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

“The universe, in its most profound structure, is essentially a participation of the First and simple Perfection from which it proceeds. It is above all the reflection and imitation of an absolutely perfect exemplar.” Thus concluded Louis-Bertrand Geiger in his unsurpassed treatment of participation in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.1 Within this frame, participation is at the culmination of Aquinas’ treatment of God Himself in the Summa theologiae, the Sending of the Divine Persons. There, two modes of God’s presence appear. First, there is a common one according to which God is in all things through the Proclean triad of essence, power and presence, just in the way a cause is in the effects which participate its goodness. Creation as a whole is participation of this kind.

Type: Chapter
Information: Participation in the Divine
A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era
, pp. 220 - 244

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009440028.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

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