God as Absolute Truth: Ontological, Logical, and Moral

Section 3: God the Absolute Truth

eludes. Whence it follows that ontological truth is the thing itself in so far as it is knowable (intelligibile) . Since, however, this intrinsic relation to (a real or possible) knowledge adds no new reality to the ens, the difference between ens and verum must be purely logical. Hence the philosophical axiom : ” Ens et verum convertuntur.” If we compare the intelligibility of a thing with its being, we find that they are co-extensive, each being the measure of the other; the measure of intelligibility is being, and vice versa. St. Augustine adverts to this transcendental character of ontological truth when he says : 6 * Verum esse videtur id quod est — That which is, seems to be true.* If all being, as such, is knowable, and consequently true, an object of cognition can be called false or untrue only in an analogous sense, namely inasmuch as some feature of it is apt to produce logical falsity in our mind ; as when, for instance, we mistake a ” gold brick ” for real gold. Even the things we call false possess ontological truth, because they are what they are; thus, for example, false hair is a true wig, false butter may be genuine margarine, a spurious Hector may be a true tragedian, etc.7 2. The Dogma. — Whenever the sources of Divine Revelation and the infallible teaching office of the Church employ the term “one true God” (verus Dens), they refer not to His logical, but to His ontological truth.8 While the “false gods” of the Gentiles are true and genuine idols, Yahweh alone is the true God, i. e.> 6 SoHl,, II, 5 • 8 C/r, Cone. Later an. IV, cap. 7 Cfr. S. Thorn,, De Verity qu, i, ” Firmiter ”; Cone. Vatican,, Sess, jq, III, De Fide; can, zt

He Who corresponds in every respect to the concept of Deity.9 a) If we would resolve God’s ontological truth into its constituent momenta, we must first conceive it, as it were, steeped in aseity; and consequently as essential, primeval, primordial truth (veritas a se). God is Pure Truth in virtue of His proper essence, not by any agency extraneous to Himself. Since ontological truth, or cognoscibility, increases in the same ratio with being, it follows that He who Is ffiiT, or 6 &v, par excellence, must likewise be the ” first and sovereign truth ” {veritas suprema, 17 avraXrjOeia) . As St. Augustine puts it, ” Ubi magnitudo ipsa veritas est, quidquid plus habet magnitudinis, necesse est ut plus habeat veritatis — Where greatness itself is truth, whatsoever has more of greatness, must needs have more of truth.” 9a b) But God is also the All-Truth (17 travaXifOaxi) , i. e., the creative cause of all truths derived from Him, and subject to Him, and their ideal (type, exemplary cause). In these two propositions all philosophy is contained as in a nutshell, and we shall have to discuss them a little more fully. a) As the efficient cause, or Creator, of the universe, God endows all creatures with whatever they have both of being and of truth (intelligibility). All beings outside the Divine Essence owe their origin to that Essence, and are nothing but ” embodiments of divine ideas.” The world in us and around us is merely a reflex of the world of divine ideas. The things that exist are true (i. e., knowable) only in so far as there is perfect correspondence between them and their archetypes in the • Cfr. Jer. X, 10; John XVII, 3. VIII, 1. (Haddan’* translation, j>, »a Cfr. Augnstin.. Pe Trinti*, *oa.)

Mind of God, Who planned and created them. The “conformity of things to the divine idea,” therefore, constitutes their ontological truth. We know for certain that the world around us, which we perceive as real, is not a surd, unintelligible aXoyov, but derived from an Intellect, and therefore intelligible. This certitude lays the foundation for all metaphysics and epistemology. It is only when viewed in the light of this overshadowing truth, that the universe appears to us as a rational whole, apt to be conceived and appraised by our finite understanding. Truly, therefore, does the PseudoDionysius10 call the ideas existing in the Divine Mind ” the creative logoi of things,” 11 and ” the exemplars according to which God, the Wepovcrio*, designed and created all existing substances.” 12 Aquinas with his customary acuteness develops this thought as follows: “Res natnrales mensurant intellectum nostrum, sed sunt tnensuratae ab intellectu divino, in quo sunt omnia creata, sicut omnia artificata [sunt] in intellectu artificis: sic ergo intellectus divinus est mensurans, non mensuratus, res autem mensurans et mensurata; sed intellectus noster est mensuratus, non mensurans quidem res naturales, sed artificiales tantum* 18 p) God can communicate ontological truth to created objects only in accordance with the * eternal worldideas ” existing within Himself ; and here we have a second reason why He is ” the All-Truth ” : He is the exemplary cause of all things, and therefore the ideal of all derived truth. Nothing exists — sin alone excepted— which cannot be traced to the eternal ideas of God. But what about the domain of the merely posio De Divin. Norn., c. 5, f 8. 12 tA 6ptcl w&ptcl irpowpiae kclI U pi tujv IvTwv ptififaow Xd^ei, wapjyaycv. %zDe Verity qu. j, art. 2.

sible, the supra-sensual sphere of “the purely intelligible,” the ideal world of ” metaphysical essences,” in which the genius of Augustine delighted to soar? This, too, receives all its truth, i. e., its intelligibility, from God as its exemplary (though not as its creative) cause. The archetype, basis, and measure of all (abstract) truths in logic, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, music, mathematics, etc., must be sought in God, the irava\i)$eia9 Who drew forth from His own immutable Essence, where they had existed from all eternity, the unchangeable norms of these sciences, and imposed them as inviolable laws on the minds of His creatures. Even the sciences that deal with contingent and accidental things (such as history) are but reflexes of the divine AllTruth, exponents of its imitability and its ability to project itself outward. As for the truth or untruth of moral actions, Scripture teaches that all morality is grounded in an eternal and unchangeable idea, the lex aeterna, with which our actions must conform in order to be ethically true, i. e., morally good. Sin alone does not correspond to any exemplary idea or creative thought in the Divine Essence; sin, therefore, is “untruth,” sin is a ” lie.” It is in this sense that we must understand Ps. CXVIII : ” All His [God’s] ways are truth (DDK)” ; and the prayer pronounced by Jesus as the High Priest of humanity : * Sanctify them in truth … for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.* 14 According to the Apocalypse no one ” that maketh a lie ” can enter into the heavenly Jerusalem.15 c) As He is the * Primordial Truth, and the AllTruth, so God is also the Super-Truth (17 WcpaA^&ia). For, if (ontological) truth consists in conformity of 14 John XVII, 17 sqq. 15 Apoc. XXI, 37.

no LOGICAL TRUTH being to knowledge, it is quite plain that the concept to which the Divine Essence conforms, must have its root in this very Essence. In other words, the type of true Divinity is that infinite idea which God has of Himself from all eternity, and which He does not derive from anything outside Himself, but carries within His own Substance. With this infinite idea the divine being conforms to such a degree that there is substantial identity between God’s being and knowledge.16 While the Divine All-Truth determines all derived truths, as their canon and norm, it does not itself receive its measure and purpose from anything extraneous or superior to itself, but as ” Super-Truth ” finds these in its own essence, which infinitely surpasses everything that can be conceived in the domain of created truth. Readings: — Alex. Halens., Sutnnw, ia, qu. 15. — S. Thorn., 5*. TheoL, ia, qu. 16 (Bonjoannes-Lescher, Compendium, pp. 46 sqq.). — Idem, S. Contr. Gent, I, 42 (Rickaby, Of God and His Creatures, pp. 44 sq.). — Ruiz, De Scientia Dei, disp. 88 sqq. — Lessius, De Perfect Divin., VI, 4.

Article 2: God as Logical Truth, or Absolute Reason

GOD AS LOGICAL TRUTH OR ABSOLUTE REASON i. Preliminary Observations. — By “logical truth” (veritas in cognoscendo), or truth in its formal sense, we understand conformity of the mind to its object.17 Knowledge is true in so far as it conforms to its object; that is to say, in so far as the object is conceived as it is. 10 Cfr. S. Theol., ia, qu. 16, art. etiam est ipsum suum intelligere.” 5: Esse autem Dei non solum n * Veritas logica est adaequatio est conforme suo intellect™, sed intellects cum re.’ THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 23! As ontological truth belongs to metaphysics, so logical truth appertains to logic and epistemology. The opposite of logical truth is falsity or error, which must therefore be defined as a want of conformity between cognition and its object It is the business of logic to show that error originates in judgments and ratiocinations.18 Since logical truth relates to cognition, its place is properly among the attributes of divine life or operation. We treat it here because it is inseparable from ontological truth, reserving a fuller discussion for a later article on the knowledge of God. 2. The Dogma. — By “absolute reason” we mean, not spirituality, or a mere faculty of cognition, but pure intelligence (ipsum intelligere, intellect™ subsistens). In this sense the dogma that God is absolute reason is formally included in the dogma of His simplicity.10 A deeper analysis leads to the following conclusions: a) The first truth that impresses itself upon us is that the Divine Knowledge is not a mere conformity or equation, but “identity” of being and thought. While in the case of creatures every act of cognition proceeds as a (vital) accident from its faculty, and is supported by that faculty, God’s knowledge is a substantial act, absolutely identical with the Divine Essence, life, and attributes. Therefore God is above all things the Substantial Truth.20 It is but a step from this proposition 18 St. Thomas, Contr. Gent., I, 61 : ” The intellect does not err over first principles, but over reasoned conclusions from first principles.” (Rickaby, Of God and His Creatures, p. 44). 19 Supra, pp. 200 sqq. 20 Cfr. S. Theol., xa, qu. 14, art. 1: * Scientia non est qualitas in Deo vel habitus, sed substantia el actus purus.* 232 LOGICAL TRUTH to that other one, that ” God is His own infinite comprehension.” 21 The perfection of logical truth, be it remembered, depends on three factors: (i) a cognizable object; (2) a cognitive power, and (3) the union of both in the act of cognition. The richer, the clearer, the more intelligible an object is, the more powerful and penetrating is the faculty of cognition, the more intimate is the comprehension of the object by the faculty in the act of cognition, the higher and more perfect is the truth of the resulting knowledge. Now God as the Primal Truth, the All-Truth, and the Super-Truth, is the most intelligible of all beings. His cognitive power is commensurate with His infinity; and the union of both is the most intimate that can possibly be conceived, because it results in an absolute equation (identity) between being and cognition. Consequently God’s knowledge of Himself must culminate in an infinite comprehension of His own Essence, in and by virtue of which He adequately and exhaustively understands Himself and all things external to Himself. Since this absolute divine self-comprehension is a vital operation, God must be the essentially subsisting, personal, living Truth (intellectio subsistens, vitalis). In all three of these respects God is “Absolute Reason.” Sacred Scripture accordingly loves to personify the Divine Wisdom and Truth, and often speaks of it as a Personal Being (in the sense of absolute subsistence). This is the case especially in the Sapiential Books of the Old Testament. The Fathers imitate this practice. Jesus, in saying: “Ego sum via et Veritas (^ dA^cia) et vita — I am the way, the truth, and the life,” 22 clearly means logical truth, because He is speaking of His mission as the ” Teacher ” of mankind. 21 * Deus est cotnprehensio sui,* 22 John XIV, 6,

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ‘233 b) In the foregoing paragraph we have treated of God as Absolute Reason per se. We now proceed to consider Him as the Absolute Truth in relation to His rational creatures. The fate of Ontologism and Theosophy warns us that we are treading on dangerous ground. St. Augustine23 teaches that we may call God “the light of intelligent spirits ” {lumen menHum). He means to say that the Divine All-Truth is not only in itself purest light, depending for its brilliancy on none other, but that this light somehow illuminates the created intellect, moving it intrinsically to perform the act of cognition. It is here we reach that half-obscure boundary line where truth easily becomes distorted, and incautious theologians are likely to go astray. Nowhere, therefore, is it more necessary than here to mark off the domain of natural cognition from the realm of supernatural truth. a) In the natural order Absolute Reason is the Creator and Author of all intelligence — the surging and overflowing ocean of light from which all truth descends into created intellects. The Divine Truth rules all created intelligences by means of the (metaphysical) laws of being and the (logical) laws of thought, and bends them unconditionally under the iron law of evidence, which is the criterion of all truth. And in so far as the created intellect is an ” image and likeness ” of the Infinite Spirit — Who is the Prototype of all intelligences — it is subject to the sway of the divine light of truth, which renders all being intelligible, and endows every mind with intelligence. Consequently, every single act of truth-perception on the part of a finite intellect, and the created mind itself are but a weak reflex of the Divine Spirit and the Divine 16 28 Supra, p. 129.

LOGICAL TRUTH Knowledge. God thinks because He is thought itself; the creature merely re-thinks in its finite fashion the thoughts already spun out by the Divine Intellect. In this sense, and in this sense alone,24 are we to understand the Scholastic formula of the participation of the finite intellect in Divine Knowledge, which St. Thomas Aquinas explains as follows: ” Sicut animae et res aliae verae quidem dicuntur in suis naturis, secundum quod similitudinem illius summae naturae habent, quae est ipsa Veritas; ita id quod per animam cognitum est, verum est, inquantum illius divinae veritatis, quam Deus cognoscit, similitudo quaedam existit in ipsa. Unde et Glossa {in Ps. XI, 2) dicit, quod sicut ab una facie resultant multae fades in speculo, ita ab una prima veritate resultant multae veritates in mentibus hominum — As the soul and other beings are called ’ true ’ in their natures, as bearing some likeness to the supreme nature of God, — which is truth itself, as being its own fulness of actual understanding, — so what is known by the soul is true for the reason that there exists in the soul a likeness of that divine truth which God knows. Hence on the text (Ps. XI, 2), ’ Truths are diminished from the sons of men/ the Gloss 28 says : ’ The truth is one, whereby holy souls are illumined: but since there are many souls, there may be said to be in them many truths, as from one face many images may appear in many mirrors.” 29 This excludes all Pantheistic and semi-Pantheistic interpretations. ft) It is in the supernatural order that the participation of the created intellect in the truth-life of the God24 Not in the Theosophic mean- 26 Contr. Gent., Ill, 47 (Rickaby, ing given to it by Baader. Of God and His Creatures, p. 127). 25Cfr. St. August, Enorrotiones in h. U

head becomes most complete, mpst intimate, and most real; though here, again, we must guard against Theosophic and Pantheistic perversions. The supernatural light of truth, by which the germs of ” conformity with God ” 27 are implanted in the soul, first asserts itself in the act of faith. For, ” the life was the light of men ” … and He [the Logos] “was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” 28 In Heaven the dim light which faith imparts here below, becomes perfect vision, which, in virtue of the light of glory, immerses the intellects of the Just into the Divine Essence and elevates them to an immediate participation in the Trinitarian life of the Godhead.29 Lessius80 gives a graphic description of the manner in which truth flows forth from its heavenly Source and inundates the created universe. Gushing from its divine fount, it first flows through the channel of creation into the forms of created things, imparting to them their ontological truth (cognoscibility). Thence it forces its way into the intellect of those creatures who are endowed with reason (= logical truth), seeps through into the passions and moral actions of men, until finally, having lost much of its original impetus, it terminates in the truths that men speak and write. It finds a second channel in Supernatural Revelation, which originates in the infusion of faith and reaches its climax in the beatific vision of God. A third channel, the one we have pointed out above81 in treating of God as the causa exemplaris of created things, Lessius leaves unmentioned. 27Cfr. 2 Pet. I, 4: * divinae con- 29 Cfr. supra, Part I, Chapter 2, sortes naturae,* Section 2. 28 John I, 4 sqq.; cfr. 1 Pet. II, so De Divin. Perfect., VI, 4. 9. 81 Article x, No. 2.

236 MORAL TRUTH Readings : — Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol. I, § 95. — Franzelin, De Deo Uno, thes. 28> 36. — Lessius, De Divin. Perfect., VI, 4. — *S. Thorn., De Verit., qu. 11. — W. Humphrey, S. J., “His Divine Majesty,” pp. 89 sqq., London 1897.

Article 3: God as Moral Truth, or His Veracity and Faithfulness

GOD AS MORAL TRUTH, OR HIS VERACITY AND FAITHFULNESS i. Preliminary Observations. — The attribute of “moral truth” comprises two elements : veracity (veracitas = Veritas in dicendo) and faithfulness (fidelitas = Veritas in agendo). a) Veracity means the firm purpose of telling the truth always and everywhere. It is opposed to mendaciousness, which disturbs the harmony between thought and language in order to deceive others, and thereby destroys confidence. Mendaciousness is habitual untruthfulness, and is a proper attribute of the Devil, whom Sacred Scripture calls “the father of lies.” Though veracity in so far as it is a virtue, and mendaciousness in so far as it is a vice, appertain formally to the will, they also bear an essential relation to the intellect, because veracity must always be conceived as an equation between the intellect and speech (adaequatio intellectus cum sermone) while mendaciousness is a diflformity between the two (difformitas intellectus et sermonis). THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 237 b) Akin to veracity, although not identical with it, is fidelity or faithfulness, which may be defined as “the firm purpose of keeping one’s promises or carrying out one’s threats.” Like veracity, faithfulness as a virtue appertains immediately to the will, though it too bears an obvious relation to the intellect, inasmuch as to keep one’s promises, and to carry out one’s threats, postulates veracity. He who breaks his promise is a liar. To bring out these momenta clearly, we may say that faithfulness is an equation between speech and conduct (adaequatio sermonis cum actione)}2 Opposed to faithfulness as its contradictory is infidelity; its contrary* is deceit. Both are vices, and as such inhere in the will. Yet, involving as they do a lack of harmony between speech and conduct, they can never deny their relationship with falsehood, lying, and error. c) From all this it appears that veracity and faithfulness, considered as divine virtues, are not properly attributes of being, but rather qualities of the will. But inasmuch as both have truth for their taproot, it is meet that they be treated in connection with the ontological and logical truth of God. Theologically God’s veracity and faithfulness are very important at82Cfr. St. Thomas, In Epist. I delitas) nihil aliud est quam parTim., c. 2, lect. 2 : ” Fides (=£ fi- ticipatio sive adhaesio veritati” 238 VERACITY tributes, because they constitute the foundation of two of the so-called theological virtues, veracity being the formal motive of faith, while faithfulness is the formal motive of hope. 2. The Dogma of God’s Veracity. — It is an article of faith that in the present Economy God neither lies nor can lie. But is lying absolutely repugnant to the Divine Essence? Can no other order of the universe be imagined in which it might be possible for God to lie? Some theologians, recalling the example of Jacob and Judith in the Old Testament, and the teaching of Gabriel Biel,38 Pierre d’Ailly, and others, see no more than a theological conclusion in the proposition that lying is absolutely repugnant to the Divine Essence. We prefer to believe, with Suarez, that it is a dogma clearly contained in Divine Revelation. a) The Bible again and again asserts the veracity of God, by declaring that in virtue of His very Essence it is impossible for Him to lie. *Qui me misit, verax (oAi?%) esf — He that sent me is true/’ 34 or *

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES verax, omnis autem homo mendax — God is true, but every man a liar/1 is evidently this: Man is capable of lying, God is not.87 b) While some of the Fathers (like Chrysostom and Jerome) appear to base the immorality of lying on its positive prohibition by God, rather than upon its intrinsic wrongfulness, the majority, under the leadership of St. Augustine, teach that mendaciousness is something so essentially immoral in itself that it would be sinful even if there were no specific divine commandment forbidding it. What is intrinsically and essentially sinful, God’s sanctity can never permit, either in the present or in any other conceivable Economy. Even St. Chrysostom, notoriously so mild in condoning the little “white lies” of daily life, expressly declares that “there are certain things impossible to God, viz.: to be deceived, to deceive, and to lie.,, 88 3. The Dogma of God’s Fidelity. — According to the consentient teaching of all theologians, it is de Me that infidelity or deceit is absolutely contrary to the Essence of God. a) The Scriptural proof for this dogma is bottomed first upon those texts which teach God’s faithfulness,89 and secondly upon the repeatedly asserted impossibility of God’s breaking 87 Cfr. Numb. XXIII, 19. 88 Horn* in SymK 1. 89 Cfr. Ps. CXLIV, 13: Fideli Deus in omnibus verbis suis* 240 FIDELITY the faith, because if He broke the faith He would contradict Himself.40 Jesus Christ describes divine fidelity in these subtime terms : 41 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” 42 b) From the writings of the Fathers we shall content ourselves with citing this one passage of St. Augustine : 43 “Spes nostra tarn certa est, quasi iam res perfecta sit. Neque etiam timemus promittente veritate. Veritas nec falli potest nec fallere — Our hope is as certain as if the promise were already fulfilled. Nor do we fear, seeing we have the promise of truth. Truth can neither be deceived nor deceive.” The theological argument rests upon God’s veracity. He would not be veracious if He failed to keep His promises or to carry out His just threats. All those circumstances and motives which at various times induce men to become faithless or to deceive others (such as forgetfulness, change of mind, impotence, malice, etc.) are formally excluded from God’s Essence by the divine attributes of omniscience, immutability, omnipotence, sanctity, etc. Readings: — Kleutgen, De Ipso Deo, pp. 397 sqq. — Alb. a Busano, ed. Graun, Theol. Dogtnat. Special., I, pp. 99 sqq., Oeniponte 1893. 40 Cfr. 2 Tim. II, 13: ” Si non credimus, ille fidelis (itkttSs) pertnanet [quia] negate seipsum non potest {dpv^aaaOai ybp iavrbu ov MvaraO— » If we believe not, he continueth faithful, he cannot deny Himself.” 41 Math. XXIV, 35. 42 Cfr. Deut. XXXII, 4; VII, 9; 1 Thess. V, 24; 2 Thess. Ill, 3; etc, 43 Pro/, in Ps», 123.