Scholastica commentaria in Primam Partem Summae Theologicae

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE.

FIRST conclusion: God is in place, as in all other things, giving it to-be and locative power. Second conclusion: God is in place insofar as He fills place, yet not as a body. Third conclusion, to the third: As the soul is whole in any part of the body, so the whole God is in all things and in each one, with totality of essence.

COMMENTARY.

NOTE that the first conclusion, if understood of true and real places, is certain according to faith, as is clear from the testimonies adduced in art. 1. The second conclusion, however, is not to be so understood as though God filled place circumscriptively or definitively, but He is said to fill place causally, not only because He gives to-be to place, and locative power, but also because He gives to-be to all things contained in place, existing in them and making them to be contained by place.

THERE IS A DOUBT, however: Whether God should be said to be outside the universe, in imaginary places. And it seems so. A spiritual substance is said to be in a place when it so has its operative power applied that without change of itself it can operate, although in act it does not operate; but God so has His power outside the whole world that without change of Himself He can operate there; therefore He is there.

It is argued second. If God is not outside the whole world, it follows that He is in the whole world definitively, as the soul is in the whole body. The consequence is proved: because the existence of God does not extend beyond the world, if He is not outside the world.

It is argued third. If God is not outside the whole universe, it follows that if God moved the whole universe to another imaginary place, upward or downward, God Himself would be moved accidentally, at the motion of the universe. The consequence is proved: because through that motion of the universe God would be in another place, and would have departed from the place in which He was before; the consequent is false; therefore.

Fourth. God is said to have been before all time, and outside all time; therefore He should be said to be outside every place.

Fifth. From Sacred Scripture it is gathered that God is not comprehended by the whole fabric of creatures, according to that text of 3 Kings 8: «For if heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much more this house which I have built for Thee?» And St. Augustine seems to hold thus, Conf. 1, chs. 2 and 3; and book 7, ch. 5, where he contemplates God Himself as an infinite sea, within which is a sponge penetrated by the water of the sea, to which sponge the whole world is compared; therefore God is outside the whole world, as that sea would be outside the sponge. And in book 11 De Civit., ch. 5, he seems to hold the same. Cajetan follows the same opinion on that text of John 12: «I am come a light into the world.»

But on the opposite side: no creature is outside heaven; but God is not in nothing; therefore He is not outside heaven. It is confirmed. Before God made the world He was nowhere, because there was nothing where He might be; therefore, by equal reasoning, now too He is not outside the world, because there is nothing outside the world where He might be. Second. God is not in possible creatures; therefore much less will He be said to be in imaginary ones. On this doubt Alexander of Hales, 1. p., q. 9., memb. 5; Scotus, q. unica; St. Bonaventure, Capreolus, in 1., dist. 37, say that in act God is only in true places; in imaginary ones, however, He is in potency, not in act. To us, however, two things seem to need saying. Hence let the first conclusion be: God is not in act in a place outside heaven. It is proved: because there is no place outside heaven. Again it is proved: because outside heaven He is not through essence, presence, and power; therefore in no way is He there. The antecedent is proved from St. Thomas, art. 3 of this question, from the definition of these three modes, none of which is verified of God outside the universe. Second conclusion: God is outside heaven, but not in anything other than in Himself, as He was from eternity; and as He is said to be before the world, so is He outside the world. This conclusion needs explanation rather than proof; for the particle, outside, can be taken in two ways: in one way, as marking something real outside the world where God is; and in this way God is not outside the world. In the other way outside can be taken for what is not within in a limited way: and thus God is outside the universe, because He exceeds it: for the operative power of God is not limited to this universe. And this we grant, as to the arguments made for the affirmative side. For the first argument does not prove that God has His operative power applied outside the world. The second argument, however, is easily solved: for not dif-