This is the Guided Tour of the Summa Theologiae, a project for all paid subscribers of Aquinas and Beyond. In it, we are carefully reading through St. Thomas Aquinas’s masterpiece, with help from experts on Aquinas, to think like the universal doctor of the Church. Stop feeling intimidated by Aquinas, and subscribe so you can read along!
After a brief detour on the nature of truth and falsity, Aquinas moves back to speaking about God himself, though we are very nearly to the end of God’s attributes, after which we proceed to the actions of God and his interaction with creation.
In question 18, Aquinas answers a question that is a little weird to think about: is God alive? Certainly, the Bible says that we have a “living” God, and that God is a God of the living. But what would it even mean to say that God has life? That is the subject of today’s edition of the Guided Tour of the Summa Theologiae.
As always, here are some resources you might find helpful as we move forward:
The Summa Theologiae itself. Buy Prima Pars here, and the whole Summa here. Read it for free here.
If you have never read the Summa, it can be a little intimidating. But I put together a roadmap so that anybody can read it and understand it. Get it here.
Here is the commentary I will be using from Walter Farrell, O.P.
Here is the commentary I will be using from Brian Davies, O.P.
Now, let’s dive into God’s life.
Question 18: The Life of God
1. Are All Things Alive?
If all things that existed were alive, then God would definitely be alive. But it seems obvious that, if “alive” means anything at all while being a useful term, it should mean something other than “exists.” Moreover, there does seem to be some kind of genuine difference between, for example, plants and dogs and bacteria on one hand, and rocks or dirt on the other. Unless you are a pantheist or panpsychist, you probably do not think that rocks or dirt are alive, and almost everyone takes themselves, plants and animals to be alive.
Aquinas points out that we generally take things to be alive when they are able to move themselves in some way. Persons, dogs and plants seem capable to do things of their own power, using the resources in their environment but not deterministically chosen as such. Even when it cannot move itself physically, there are kinds of motion that a living creature maintains the ability to cause without itself being externally moved. Once that ability is lost, the being that thereby loses its ability is considered dead.
It should be pointed out that self-motion in this sense is not quite the same as Aquinas has in mind in the five ways, as this self-motion is coming from a way in which the living being is already in act, namely the first act of whatever power the being already has. So while no being can move itself in the sense that it cannot actualize that which it does not already possess in act, the self-motion of life is the motion of act already possessed.
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Founding Members get a FREE copy of my Catholic Philosopher In A Year Reading Plan, my ultimate reading list to get up to speed in Catholic Philosophy.
Blogs on the philosophy of religion (God, evil, free will, etc.) like this one about art and the problem of evil.
Reader’s Guides on the great works of Catholic philosophy, like last month’s guide on Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism.
Further reading recommendations on many posts, including free posts.
Stop feeling confused in the face of deep Catholic conversations and start thinking like a Catholic philosopher.
