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!
Does God know things? How? What? In what manner? And what does that knowledge imply about everything else?
If those questions make your head spin, have no fear: we are handling these issues slowly and carefully with the help of the Angelic doctor. In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas’s question on God’s knowledge is so long (16 articles!) that I am dealing with it in two posts: 8 articles this week, 8 articles next week.
The themes in the question of God’s knowledge touch some of the thorniest problems in philosophy: Free will, eternity, Divine Simplicity, the nature of universals, the nature of knowledge, and more. That makes this question one of the most philosophically interesting in the whole Summa!
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 knowledge.
Question 14: God’s Knowledge
This question first has to establish what knowledge is, and why we would think God has it. Then, we discuss the nature of God’s knowledge. In part 2 next week, we start addressing the implications of that knowledge.
1. Does God Have Knowledge?
Aquinas has an interesting distinction between intelligent beings and non-intelligent beings in this question. Since the intellect receives the forms of the beings, Aquinas says that the difference between intelligent beings and non-intelligent beings is that an intelligent being can hold the form of something other than itself — namely, in its intellect.
The reason that an intelligent being can hold another form is due to the immaterial nature of the intellect; the mind can hold forms without becoming those forms because the form does not inhere in matter.
Since God is immaterial, Aquinas takes it to be straightforward that God has knowledge. As an immaterial being, God can hold forms of other things without being those things. Indeed, God has the forms of all things. Therefore, God knows those things, and therefore God has knowledge. Davies sums it up well here:
For Aquinas, intelligibility actualized without matter (form without matter) is what knowing is, from which it follows that God, being form without matter, is intelligibility actualized and is something with knowledge…[he] thinks that things are either purely material or the bearers of knowledge. If they are the bearers of knowledge, then that is because of existence unrestricted by matter in them, and this, with an eye on God, is what Ia,14,I is arguing.1
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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.
