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027 - Xxvii That God Is Not The Form Of A Body · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven of Summa Contragentilees, First Book on God,
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  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven. That God is not the form of
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  Speaker 1: a body. Accordingly, having shown that God is not the
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  Speaker 1: being of all, it can be proved in like manner
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  Speaker 1: that God is not the form of any thing. For
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  Speaker 1: the divine being cannot be the being of aquidity that
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  Speaker 1: is not its own being. Is shown above. Now, that
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  Speaker 1: which is the divine being itself is no other than God.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore it is impossible for God to be the form
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  Speaker 1: of any other thing. Further, the form of a body
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  Speaker 1: is not its very being, but the principle of its being.
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  Speaker 1: But God is being itself. Therefore God is not the
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  Speaker 1: form of a body. Again, the union of form and
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  Speaker 1: matter results in a composite, and this is a whole.
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  Speaker 1: In respect of form and matter. Now the parts are
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  Speaker 1: in potentiality with respect to the whole. But in God
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  Speaker 1: there is no potentiality. Therefore it is impossible for God
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  Speaker 1: to be the form united to anything. Again, that which
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  Speaker 1: has being per se is more excellent than what has
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  Speaker 1: been in another. Now every form of a body as
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  Speaker 1: being in another. Since then God is the most excellent being,
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  Speaker 1: as the first cause of being, he cannot be the
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  Speaker 1: form of anything. Moreover, this can also be proved from
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  Speaker 1: the eternity of movement, as follows. If God were the
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  Speaker 1: form of a movable thing, since He is the mover,
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  Speaker 1: the composite will be its own mover. But that which
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  Speaker 1: moves itself can be moved and not moved. Therefore it
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  Speaker 1: is in it to be either now a thing of
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  Speaker 1: this kind as not of itself in defectibility of movement. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: above that which moves itself we must place something else
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  Speaker 1: as first mover, which confers on it perpetuity of movement.
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  Speaker 1: And thus God, who is the first mover, is not
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  Speaker 1: the form of a body that moves itself. This argument
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  Speaker 1: avails for those who hold the eternity of movement. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: if this be not granted, the same conclusion may be
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  Speaker 1: drawn from the regularity of the heavenly movement. For just
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  Speaker 1: as that which moves itself can both be at rest
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  Speaker 1: and be moved, so can it be moved with greater
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  Speaker 1: or less velocity. Wherefore, the necessity of uniformity in the
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  Speaker 1: heavenly movement depends on some higher principle that is altogether immovable,
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  Speaker 1: and that is not the part through being the form
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  Speaker 1: of a body which moves itself. The authority of scripture
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  Speaker 1: is in agreement with this truth, for it is written
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  Speaker 1: in the Psalm Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens,
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  Speaker 1: and in Job eleven, verses eight and nine. He is
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  Speaker 1: higher than heaven, And what wilt thou do? The measure
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  Speaker 1: of him is longer than the earth and deeper than
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  Speaker 1: the sea. Hence we are able to refute the error
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  Speaker 1: of the Pagans, who asserted that God was the soul
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  Speaker 1: of the heaven, or even the soul of the whole world,
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  Speaker 1: which led them to defend the idolatrous doctrine, whereby they
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  Speaker 1: said that the whole world was God, not in reference
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  Speaker 1: to the body, but to the soul, even as man
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  Speaker 1: is said to be wise reference not to his body
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  Speaker 1: but to his soul, which being supposed, they deemed it
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  Speaker 1: to follow that divine worship is not unduly shown to
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  Speaker 1: the world and its parts. The commentator also says in
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  Speaker 1: Metaphysics eleven that this occasioned the error of the Zabian people,
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  Speaker 1: that is, of idolators, because to wit they asserted that
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  Speaker 1: God was the soul of the heaven. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven read by Michael Shane, Craig Lambert, Elsie