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039 - Xxxix That No Evil Can Be In God · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty nine 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 thirty nine. That no evil can be in God.
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  Speaker 1: Hence it is manifestly apparent that evil cannot be in God.
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  Speaker 1: For being and goodness and all essential predicates have nothing
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  Speaker 1: besides themselves added to them, although that which is or
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  Speaker 1: the good may have something besides being or goodness, since
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  Speaker 1: nothing hinders the subject of one perfection being the subject
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  Speaker 1: of another besides. Thus, that which is a body may
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  Speaker 1: be white and sweet. While every nature is confined within
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  Speaker 1: the bounds of its essence, so that it admits of
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  Speaker 1: nothing extraneous within itself. So God is goodness and not
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  Speaker 1: merely good, as we have proved above. Therefore, nothing that
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  Speaker 1: is not goodness can be in Him, and consequently evil
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  Speaker 1: can no wise be in Him. Moreover, as long as
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  Speaker 1: a thing remains, that which is contrary to its essence
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  Speaker 1: is altogether incompatible with that thing. Thus irrationality or insensibility
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  Speaker 1: is incompatible with man, unless he ceased to be man. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the divine essence is goodness itself, as we have proved. Therefore, evil,
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  Speaker 1: which is contrary to good, can have no place in
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  Speaker 1: God unless he cease to be God, which is impossible
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  Speaker 1: since he is eternal, as was proved above. Again, since
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  Speaker 1: God is his own being, nothing can be said of
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  Speaker 1: him by participation, as is clear from the argument given above.
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  Speaker 1: If then evil were predicated of him, it would be
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  Speaker 1: a predicate not by participation, but by essence. But evil
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  Speaker 1: cannot be predicated of anything in such a way as
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  Speaker 1: to be the essence of that thing, or it would
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  Speaker 1: lack being, which is a good, as we have shown above.
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  Speaker 1: And in evil there can be no extraneous admixture, as
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  Speaker 1: neither can there be in goodness. Therefore evil cannot be
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  Speaker 1: predicated of God. Again, evil is opposed to good. Now
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  Speaker 1: the notion of good consists in perfection, and therefore the
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  Speaker 1: notion of evil consists in imperfection. Now, defect or imperfection
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  Speaker 1: cannot be in God, since he is universally perfect, as
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  Speaker 1: shown above. Therefore evil cannot be in God. A thing
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  Speaker 1: is perfect according as it is in act, therefore it
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  Speaker 1: will be imperfect according as it is deficient in act.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore evil is either privation or includes privation. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: subject of privation is a potentiality, and this cannot be
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  Speaker 1: in God, and consequently neither can evil. Moreover, if good
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  Speaker 1: is what is desired by all, according to the First
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  Speaker 1: Book of Ethics, Chapter one, it follows that evil as
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  Speaker 1: such is shunned by every nature. Now, that which is
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  Speaker 1: in a thing against the mode of its natural appetite
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  Speaker 1: is violent and unnatural. Therefore evil in a thing is
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  Speaker 1: violent and unnatural in so far as it is an
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  Speaker 1: evil to that thing. Although in composite things it may
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  Speaker 1: be natural thereto in respect of some part. But God
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  Speaker 1: is not composite, nor can anything be violent or unnatural
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  Speaker 1: in Him, as shown above. Therefore, evil cannot be in God.
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  Speaker 1: This is moreover confirmed by holy writ, for it is
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  Speaker 1: written in the canonical Epistle of John. God is light,
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  Speaker 1: and in him there is no darkness. And in Job
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  Speaker 1: thirty four, verse ten, far from God be wickedness and iniquity.
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  Speaker 1: From the Almighty end of chapter thirty nine, read by
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  Speaker 1: Michael Shane, Craig Lambert Elsie