Sect. 73God, the Objective TruthGod, the Objective Truth
I. As God is essentially the most simple, infinite, and immutable perfection, He possesses the attribute of ontological or objective truth in an infinite degree. The act by which the Divine Essence knows itself is not merely a representation of the Divine Essence to the Divine Mind: it is identically one and the same with His Essence. Hence God is the clearest and purest truth. Again, as the perfection of the Divine Essence is infinite, it is also infinitely knowable, and fills the Divine Mind with a knowledge than which no greater can be conceived; wherefore God is the highest and completest truth. Moreover, the Divine truth participates in the immutability of the Divine Essence, and therefore God is the immutable truth. Lastly, as God is His own Being, so is He also His own truth, and truth pure and simple; that is, He necessarily knows Himself as He is, and His knowledge is independent of everything not Himself.
This doctrine is but a repetition, in another form, of the doctrine on the Divine Essence. It is implicitly contained in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and 1 John 5:6, “Christ is the truth (ἡ ἀλήθεια).”
II. God is, further, the First Truth (prima veritas). No truth is before Him or above Him. As First Cause He is the foundation of the objective truth of all things existing, and also of the possibility of all things possible. He is the prototype, the ideal, of all things, and consequently the measure of the truth they contain. He is, as it were, the mirror or the objective light, in which all things can be known better than in themselves, although not necessarily by us. Hence it follows (1) that we can know nothing as true except by some influence of the First Truth on our mind; (2) that the affirmation of any truth implies the affirmation of the First and Fundamental Truth; and (3) that the negation of God implies the negation of all objective truth, thus not only making all knowledge uncertain, but changing it into falsehood and deception.
I. As God is essentially the most simple, infinite, and immutable perfection, He possesses the attribute of ontological or objective truth in an infinite degree. The act by which the Divine Essence knows itself is not merely a representation of the Divine Essence to the Divine Mind: it is identically one and the same with His Essence. Hence God is the clearest and purest truth. Again, as the perfection of the Divine Essence is infinite, it is also infinitely knowable, and fills the Divine Mind with a knowledge than which no greater can be conceived; wherefore God is the highest and completest truth. Moreover, the Divine truth participates in the immutability of the Divine Essence, and therefore God is the immutable truth. Lastly, as God is His own Being, so is He also His own truth, and truth pure and simple; that is, He necessarily knows Himself as He is, and His knowledge is independent of everything not Himself.
This doctrine is but a repetition, in another form, of the doctrine on the Divine Essence. It is implicitly contained in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and 1 John 5:6, “Christ is the truth (ἡ ἀλήθεια).”
II. God is, further, the First Truth (prima veritas). No truth is before Him or above Him. As First Cause He is the foundation of the objective truth of all things existing, and also of the possibility of all things possible. He is the prototype, the ideal, of all things, and consequently the measure of the truth they contain. He is, as it were, the mirror or the objective light, in which all things can be known better than in themselves, although not necessarily by us. Hence it follows (1) that we can know nothing as true except by some influence of the First Truth on our mind; (2) that the affirmation of any truth implies the affirmation of the First and Fundamental Truth; and (3) that the negation of God implies the negation of all objective truth, thus not only making all knowledge uncertain, but changing it into falsehood and deception.
Seção 25% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.