Sect. 65The Immutability of GodThe Immutability of God

I. God is absolutely immutable: no change whatever can affect the Divine Substance; He is always absolutely the same in Substance, Attributes, and Life.

1. “I am the Lord, and I change not” (Mal. 3:6); “the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration” παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα (James 1:17; cf. Ps. 101:27, 28, and Heb. 1:11, 12; Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17, 6:16; Wisd. 7:27, etc.).

2. Tradition, too, abounds with similar testimonies. The Councils and Fathers take for granted the Divine Immutability as an article of Faith in their disputes with the Arians, who opposed the Son of God to the Father as the changeable to the unchangeable; they demonstrate it against the Gnostics and Manichæans, who taught the emanation of creatures from God; against the Stoics, who maintained the passivity of God; against the Eutychians and Patripassiani, who affirmed a conversion of the Divine Nature into the human nature, or conversely. After the Creed, the Council of Nicæa added the words, “The Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes those who say that the Son of God is variable (ἀλλοιωτόν) or changeable (τρεπτόν).” Moreover, this doctrine is a prominent feature of all apologetics against the heathen. It is a favourite theme of St. Augustine (cf. De Civ. Dei, l. xi., cc. 10, 11, and l. xii., c. 17).

3. The rational proofs of the Divine Immutability are derived from the very Essence of God, which is Being pure and simple, excluding all beginning and end; from the independence and self-sufficiency of the Divine Essence, which exclude all external influence and all internal reasons requiring or producing change; from the Divine Simplicity, which excludes all composition or decomposition consequent upon mutability; from the Divine Infinity, which is incompatible with increase and decrease, or substitution of one state of being for another in the Divine Substance; and, lastly, from the necessity by which God actually is all that He can be, which excludes the possibility of acquisition or loss. These arguments, especially the last named, would seem at first sight not to apply to God’s contingent acts of thought and will. But it is absolutely necessary that His cognition and volition of things outside Him should be themselves determined, because indetermination would involve imperfection; and if this determination in God (ad intra) is absolutely necessary, its direction on this or that particular object cannot be something with a beginning or end. Moreover, although these intentions or directions of the Divine Intellect and Will upon contingent objects do not constitute the essential Being and Life of God, and although the Divine Essence and Life are entirely independent of them, still, as a matter of fact, they are contained in the Divine Essence and Life, and consequently they must participate in the immutability of these.

By basing the immutability of God’s free decrees upon the necessity of His whole Being, we have also given the principle for explaining the apparent contradiction between the Divine Immutability and the freedom of God’s Will. It is evident that the power of changing a decision once freely taken is not essential to freedom; on the contrary, consistency belongs to the ideal of freedom. Now, in order to produce a change in God, a free determination should cause a new act or new existence in such a way as to be opposed to the Divine Simplicity and Infinity. But, as we have already seen (§ 64, II.), this is not the case. Indeed, the difficulty of accounting for free will in God arises less from His Immutability than from His Simplicity, Infinity, and Necessity, although, when rightly understood, these very attributes are the foundation of His freedom. The following thesis supplies the key to the solution of the other difficulties.

II. “God, although immutable in Himself, is the principle of all mutable beings and of all the changes which take place in them; wherefore God’s essential Immutability does not exclude the variability of His external activity and of His relations to creatures. Everything, however, which would involve any change in the Divine Substance must be excluded, notably all newness of volition or motion in execution, and every affection and determination received from without.” This doctrine is of Faith, and is also theologically and philosophically evident; but theologians differ in their way of expressing and applying it.

1. The works of the Divine Omnipotence are not eternal. Creation and all the acts of Providence are measured by time, and therefore, when the effect commences, the Divine action (ad extra) that causes it commences likewise. But the realization, in time, of the eternal decree is not a formal change in the producer, nor does it presuppose such a change. God does not produce effects by means of forces or instruments, but by simply enacting His Omnipotent Will. Much less do the attributes of Creator, Lord, and the rest, based upon God’s external activity, involve a change in Him (cf. St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. xii., c. 17; Abelard, Introd., l. iii., c. 6).

2. Again, God enters into various relations with His creatures, notably in the Incarnation and by means of the operation of His grace. These relations constitute a variation which proceeds from God, and in a certain manner also terminates in Him. But here, also, the creature alone is substantially and inwardly affected by the change; grace brings the creature nearer to God, and in the case of the Incarnation the creature is elevated to unity in Person and dignity with God, Who Himself is neither elevated nor lowered in the process (cf. St. Augustine, Lib. 83 Quæst., q., 73, De Incarn.).

3. Thirdly, God takes notice of the changes which occur in creatures, and disposes His operations accordingly. It would seem, therefore, that such changes in creatures react on the Creator, and affect even His inmost life. But the real motive determining the Divine operations is in God Himself; that He is disposed differently, according to the good or evil conduct of creatures, does not entail a variety of acts or dispositions in Him. His infinite love for the Supreme Good is at the same time love for the good among His creatures, and hatred and anger against the wicked. Moreover, His pleasure or displeasure bestowed at various times has really existed from all eternity in Him, but is manifested in time. Repentance, indeed, seems to be most incompatible with the Divine Immutability. Holy Scripture sometimes denies its existence in God, but at other times attributes it to Him. We must therefore understand that the Divine operations or affections manifest themselves externally, in various times and circumstances, in such a manner as to resemble human repentance. Cf. St. Augustine, Ad Simplicium, q. ii., n. 2.

III. Absolute immutability belongs to God alone. It cannot be communicated to creatures, because they are by their very essence subject to change. However, by means of grace all defective mutations natural to creatures can be prevented, and even made impossible; and when this takes place the immutability which belongs to God is, to some extent, communicated to His creatures. But this communicated immutability is never absolute, because it does not exclude multiplicity and progress in the creature’s inner life. We should note that a sort of immutability belongs by nature to all spiritual creatures, viz. the incorruptibility of their substance and the immortality of their life.