All perfections of things pre-exist in the divine essence, yet it is entirely simple, without components. These seemingly opposed attributes of God are reconciled in Questions 3–6 of the First Part of the Summa theologiae, here newly translated and explained in line-by-line detail. Among topics receiving special attention are Aquinas’s doctrine of participation, his conception of God as a subsisting act of being, and the distinction and order of transcendentals such as being, goodness, and beauty. Intended for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and teachers, Aquinas on God’s Simplicity and Perfection throws light on the order of Aquinas’s questions, addresses difficulties commonly encountered by modern readers, and includes an exhaustive glossary of all technical terms occurring in the Summa’s first six Questions.

The doctrine of divine simplicity has long played a crucial role in Western Christianity's understanding of God. It claimed that by denying that God is composed of parts Christians are able to account for his absolute self-sufficiency and his ultimate sufficiency as the absolute Creator of the world. If God were a composite being then something other than the Godhead itself would be required to explain or account for God. If this were the case then God would not be most absolute and would not be able to adequately know or account for himself without reference to something other than himself. This book develops these arguments by examining the implications of divine simplicity for God's existence, attributes, knowledge, and will. Along the way there is extensive interaction with older writers, such as Thomas Aquinas and the Reformed scholastics, as well as more recent philosophers and theologians. An attempt is made to answer some of the currently popular criticisms of divine simplicity and to reassert the vital importance of continuing to confess that God is without parts, even in the modern philosophical-theological milieu.

Hughes discusses Aquinus' work regarding the apparently irreconcilable theses of natural and revealed theology, and he argues that Aquinas fails in his attempt to reconcile absolute simplicity with the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Hughes also offers a provocative account of divine simplicity and explores its implications for the Thomistic doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation.

Peter Weigel offers an in-depth examination of what divine simplicity means for Aquinas and how he argues for its claims. Simplicity and other divine predicates are analysed within the larger metaphysical and semantic framework surrounding Aquinas' philosophy of God.

Intended for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and teachers, this new translation and exposition of the first two Questions of the Summa theologiae explains the text in unprecedented detail. The famous “Five Ways” of Aquinas receive ample consideration. The arguments are placed in their larger context in Thomistic philosophy and traced back to first principles, which in turn are illustrated by examples and defended from common objections. All technical terms occurring in the text are defined or explained in both the commentary and the glossary. Throughout, attention is paid to the rationale behind the order in which Aquinas proceeds. 574 pages; includes three appendices, an index of primary sources useful to know in reading the first two Questions, and exhaustive glossary. Michael Augros earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston College in 1995. He has taught at Thomas Aquinas college for many years at its California campus, and now teaches at its New England campus. He is the author of two popular books on the philosophy of Aquinas, Who Designed the Designer? and The Immortal in You, both from Ignatius Press.

The legacies of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth remain influential for contemporary theologians, who have increasingly put them into conversation on debated questions over analogy and the knowledge of God. However, little explicit dialogue has occurred between their theologies of God. This book offers one of the first extended analyzes of this fundamental issue, asking how each theologian seeks to confess in fact and in thought God's qualitative distinctiveness in relation to creation. Wittman first examines how they understand the correspondence and distinction between God's being and external acts within an overarching concern to avoid idolatry. Second, he analyzes the kind of relation God bears to creation that follows from these respective understandings. Despite many common goals, Aquinas and Barth ultimately differ on the subject matter of theological reason with consequences for their ability to uphold God's distinctiveness consistently. These mutually informative issues offer some important lessons for contemporary theology.

This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.