Latest / Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God) / 049 - Xlix That God Knows Things Other Than Himself

Transcript

049 - Xlix That God Knows Things Other Than Himself · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine of Summa Contragentilles, first Book on God,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine. That God knows things other than himself.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: From the fact that God knows himself first and per se,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we must conclude that He knows things other than himself
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: in himself. For the knowledge of an effect is sufficiently
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: obtained from knowledge of the cause. Wherefore we are said
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to know a thing when we know its cause. Now, God,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: by his essence, is the cause of being in other things.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Since therefore he knows his own essence most fully, we
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: must conclude that he knows other things. Also further, the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: likeness of every effect pre exists somewhat in its cause,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: since every agent produces its like. Now, whatever is in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: something else is therein according to the mode of the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: thing in which it is. If therefore, God is the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: cause of certain things, Since by his nature he is intellectual,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the likeness of his effect will be in him intelligibly.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Now that which is in a subject intelligibly is understood. Thereby,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: therefore God understands things other than himself in himself. Moreover,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: whoever knows a thing perfectly knows whatever can be said
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: truly of that thing, and whatever is becoming there too
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: by its nature. Now it is becoming to God by
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: his nature, to be the cause of other things. Since
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: then he knows himself perfectly. He knows that he is
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a cause, and this is impossible unless he knows his
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: effect somewhat. Now, this is something other than himself, for
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: nothing is cause of itself. Therefore, God knows things other
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: than himself. Accordingly, taking these two conclusions together, it is
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: evident that God knows himself as the first and per
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: se object of his knowledge, and other things as seen
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: in his essence. This truth is explicitly declared by Dianetius
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: in on the Divine Name seven, as follows, he looks
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: upon singulars not by casting his eye on each one,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: but he knows all things as one, contained in their cause.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: And further on, divine wisdom knows other things by knowing itself. Moreover,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the authority of holy writ apparently bears witness to the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: same statement, for in the Psalm it is said of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: God he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary as
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: though he saw other things from his Exalted self. End
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of Chapter forty nine, read by Michael Shane, Craig, Lambert Elsie,