Tag: scholasticism

[article] Creation and Divine Being in the Christian Neoplatonism of William of Auvergne

ABSTRACT: This paper considers William of Auvergne’s understanding of creation and divine being.  As William of Auvergne, and especially his doctrine of creation, have been largely overlooked, the present paper outlines the metaphysical foundations for his understanding of creation, his understanding of divine being, how God is the cause of all things, and how all things then, in some sense, manifest God.  Additionally, this paper considers William’s extensive use of metaphors to give some understanding of the relationship between God and creatures, how God is the exemplar cause or archetypal world for all things, and the spiritual vision animating his philosophical teachings.… Read More [article] Creation and Divine Being in the Christian Neoplatonism of William of Auvergne

Editorial Team

[essay] Participation and the Divine

How does truth admit of more or less?  The same applies to nobility and being. One might also ask, just what does Thomas means by nobility?  How is it distinct from goodness?  How is the maximum in any genus supposed to cause everything else in that genus?  Is this formal or efficient causality?  Is this a Neo-Platonic argument from participation?  Is the argument undermined by the Angelic Doctor’s outdated and erroneous example of fire as cause of all heat?  Each issue is likely deserving of its own paper.  Yet behind all these questions (except, perhaps, the meaning of nobility), lies a more primary difficulty: the meanings of “more or less” and the “maximum” by which they are denominated. How we answer the above questions depends on our understanding of these two key features of the argument.… Read More [essay] Participation and the Divine

Brian Kemple1 Comment