MEDIEVAL CONCEPT OF

GOD
JOSE, ELIJAH AARON A.
PHI 41
WHO IS
GOD?
 WHO IS GOD?
-the Supreme deity (for monotheists)
-Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent
-known as “the Father” (Judaism)
-the Trinity (Christian doctrine) – Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit
 WHO IS GOD?
-theism – the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe
-deism – only the Creator of the universe
-pantheism – God is the universe itself
-atheism – absence of belief in God
-agnosticism – God is unknowable
MEDIEVAL CONCEPT OF
GOD
 MEDIEVAL CONCEPT OF GOD
1. What is the concept of God for Medieval
thinkers?
2. How were Medieval thinkers able to prove
God’s existence?
1. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF GOD FOR
MEDIEVAL THINKERS?
A. al-Farabi (875-950)
-objects are contingent in that they may or may not exist; they do
not have to exist
-there must be something that has to exist - that exists necessarily -
to ground the existence of all other (contingent) things
-this being is God
-the world evolves by emanation, and matter is a phase of that
process
1. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF GOD FOR
MEDIEVAL THINKERS?
B. Avicenna (or Ibn Sina; 980-1037)
-God – necessary Being
-the world is an emanation from God as the
outworking of his self-knowledge - it is eternal and
necessary
-God must be eternal and simple, existing without
multiplicity
1. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF GOD FOR
MEDIEVAL THINKERS?
C. St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-
1109)
-the Ontological argument
-God is the highest level of Being
1. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF GOD FOR
MEDIEVAL THINKERS?
D. William of Ockham (1285-1347)
-omnipotence – God can do everything
-a person could perceive something by sheer
act of divine will, without the object being there
at all
-faith and reason are contradictory
2. HOW WERE MEDIEVAL THINKERS ABLE
TO PROVE GOD’S EXISTENCE?
A. ST. ANSELM’S ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
1. It is a conceptual truth (or, so to speak, true by definition) that God is a being than which none
greater can be imagined (that is, the greatest possible being that can be imagined).
2. God exists as an idea in the mind.
3. A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is, other things being equal, greater
than a being that exists only as an idea in the mind.
4. Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is greater
than God (that is, a greatest possible being that does exist).
5. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God (for it is a contradiction to suppose
that we can imagine a being greater than the greatest possible being that can be imagined.)
6. Therefore, God exists.
2. HOW WERE MEDIEVAL THINKERS ABLE
TO PROVE GOD’S EXISTENCE?
GAUNILO’S COUNTEREXAMPLE
1. It is a conceptual truth that a piland is an island than which none greater can be imagined
(that is, the greatest possible island that can be imagined).
2. A piland exists as an idea in the mind.
3. A piland that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is greater than a piland that exists
only as an idea in the mind.
4. Thus, if a piland exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine an island that is
greater than a piland (that is, a greatest possible island that does exist).
5. But we cannot imagine an island that is greater than a piland.
6. Therefore, a piland exists.
2. HOW WERE MEDIEVAL THINKERS ABLE
TO PROVE GOD’S EXISTENCE?
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS’ QUINQUE VIAE (“FIVE WAYS”)
1. Argument From Motion (God as the Prime Mover)
2. Argument From Efficient Causes (God as the First Cause)
3. Argument From Possibility and Necessity (God as the
Necessary Being)
4. Argument From Gradation of Being (God as the Absolute
Being)
5. Argument From Design (God as the Grand Designer)