Sect. 59The Doctrine Concerning God as Defined by the Church, Especially in the Vatican CouncilThe Doctrine Concerning God as Defined by the Church, Especially in the Vatican Council
Just as the New Testament takes over from the Old Testament the doctrine concerning the Divine Essence and Nature, and only occasionally insists upon this doctrine, so has the Church from her very infancy looked upon it as sufficiently proposed and as universally admitted. Hence it is that, notwithstanding the importance and the fecundity of the dogma of the Divine Essence and Nature, it is the subject of so few definitions. It was only in our own day, when the most grievous errors concerning God had spread even among Christians, that the Church at length issued a formal definition in the Vatican Council (sess. iii., chap. 1). “The Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believeth and confesseth that there is one true and living God, the Creator and Lord of Heaven and earth, Almighty, Eternal, Immense, Incomprehensible, Infinite in intellect and will and in all perfection; Who, being one, individual, altogether simple and unchangeable Substance, must be asserted to be really and essentially distinct from the world, most happy in Himself and of Himself, and ineffably exalted above everything that exists or can be conceived.
“This one true God, of His own goodness and of His almighty power,—not to increase His happiness, nor to acquire but rather to manifest His perfection by means of the good things which He bestoweth upon creatures,—most freely in the very beginning of time made out of nothing both kinds of creatures, to wit, angelic and mundane, and afterwards human nature, participating of both because composed of spirit and body.
“But God, Who reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly (Wisd. 8:1), protecteth and ruleth by His providence all the things that He hath made. For all things are naked and open to His eyes (Heb. 4:13), even those things which will come to pass by the free agency of creatures.”
The corresponding canons are the following:—
“1. If any one shall deny the one true God, the Creator and Lord of things visible and invisible, let him be anathema.
“2. If any one shall not be ashamed to say that besides matter nothing doth exist, let him be anathema.
“3. If any one shall say that the substance or essence of God and of all things is one and the same, let him be anathema.
“4. If any one shall say that finite things, whether spiritual or corporeal, or at least spiritual things, have emanated from the Divine Substance;
“Or that the Divine Essence by the manifestation or evolution of Itself becometh all things;
“Or, finally, that God is the universal or indefinite being which by self-determination doth constitute the universe of things distinguished into genera, species, and individuals, let him be anathema.
“5. If any one shall not confess that the world and all things contained therein, both spiritual and material, have been as to their entire substance produced out of nothing by God;
“Or shall say that God created not by will free from all necessity, but necessarily, just as He necessarily loveth Himself;
“Or shall deny that the world was made for the glory of God, let him be anathema.”
The definition of the Council is directed (1) against Atheism, and especially against Materialism; (2) against Pantheism; (3) against certain modern opinions mentioned in detail in can. 5. The Council develops the idea of God positively through the attributes which manifest His absolute greatness as Supreme Being, and then defines His absolute independence of and entire distinction from all other beings. Lastly, the Council firmly establishes His absolute dominion over the universe.
Just as the New Testament takes over from the Old Testament the doctrine concerning the Divine Essence and Nature, and only occasionally insists upon this doctrine, so has the Church from her very infancy looked upon it as sufficiently proposed and as universally admitted. Hence it is that, notwithstanding the importance and the fecundity of the dogma of the Divine Essence and Nature, it is the subject of so few definitions. It was only in our own day, when the most grievous errors concerning God had spread even among Christians, that the Church at length issued a formal definition in the Vatican Council (sess. iii., chap. 1). “The Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believeth and confesseth that there is one true and living God, the Creator and Lord of Heaven and earth, Almighty, Eternal, Immense, Incomprehensible, Infinite in intellect and will and in all perfection; Who, being one, individual, altogether simple and unchangeable Substance, must be asserted to be really and essentially distinct from the world, most happy in Himself and of Himself, and ineffably exalted above everything that exists or can be conceived.
“This one true God, of His own goodness and of His almighty power,—not to increase His happiness, nor to acquire but rather to manifest His perfection by means of the good things which He bestoweth upon creatures,—most freely in the very beginning of time made out of nothing both kinds of creatures, to wit, angelic and mundane, and afterwards human nature, participating of both because composed of spirit and body.
“But God, Who reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly (Wisd. 8:1), protecteth and ruleth by His providence all the things that He hath made. For all things are naked and open to His eyes (Heb. 4:13), even those things which will come to pass by the free agency of creatures.”
The corresponding canons are the following:—
“1. If any one shall deny the one true God, the Creator and Lord of things visible and invisible, let him be anathema.
“2. If any one shall not be ashamed to say that besides matter nothing doth exist, let him be anathema.
“3. If any one shall say that the substance or essence of God and of all things is one and the same, let him be anathema.
“4. If any one shall say that finite things, whether spiritual or corporeal, or at least spiritual things, have emanated from the Divine Substance;
“Or that the Divine Essence by the manifestation or evolution of Itself becometh all things;
“Or, finally, that God is the universal or indefinite being which by self-determination doth constitute the universe of things distinguished into genera, species, and individuals, let him be anathema.
“5. If any one shall not confess that the world and all things contained therein, both spiritual and material, have been as to their entire substance produced out of nothing by God;
“Or shall say that God created not by will free from all necessity, but necessarily, just as He necessarily loveth Himself;
“Or shall deny that the world was made for the glory of God, let him be anathema.”
The definition of the Council is directed (1) against Atheism, and especially against Materialism; (2) against Pantheism; (3) against certain modern opinions mentioned in detail in can. 5. The Council develops the idea of God positively through the attributes which manifest His absolute greatness as Supreme Being, and then defines His absolute independence of and entire distinction from all other beings. Lastly, the Council firmly establishes His absolute dominion over the universe.
Seção 21% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.