On a Complex Theory of a Simple God

Abstract

According to Thomas Aquinas, natural theology tells us that God is an absolutely simple being, identical with His essence, existence, and all His intrinsic properties. At the same time, revealed theology tells us that He is the triune and incarnate God of Christianity: a Trinity of persons, one of whom subsists in both a human and a divine nature. Aquinas argues that these apparently irreconcilable theses of natural and revealed theology are in fact compatible. In On a Complex Theory of a Simple God , Christopher Hughes argues that Aquinas fails in his attempt to reconcile absolute simplicity with the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. According to Hughes, an absolutely simple God is an impossibility, a being too lacking in structure to exist. Moreover, since Aquinas' teachings on the Trinity and the Incarnation presuppose his untenable account of absolute simplicity, they inherit its untenability. Hughes also offers a philosophically interesting, but weaker, account of divine simplicity, and explores its implications for the Thomistic doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation. A dynamic blend of medieval scholar ship and original philosophical thought, Hughes's work will be invaluable to medieval philosophers, philosophers of religion, and theologians.

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