What We Mean When We Talk About God

Many people debate the existence of God without clarifying what sort of “God” they mean. If “God” is imagined as a bigger, stronger version of us, then it makes sense to doubt His existence. But if “God” refers to the One whom Thomas Aquinas calls the ipsum esse subsistens –Being itself subsisting – then the conversation changes.

The classical Christian tradition has long affirmed several key attributes of God: that He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, and utterly simple. These characteristics are not arbitrary additions to God, but essential to what we mean when we talk about God, so we will briefly explore these concepts below.

Why Believe That God is All-powerful

Calling God “omnipotent” means that nothing that is truly possible lies outside His power. God cannot do what is contradictory, such as making a square circle, because contradictions are not real things at all, only failures of logic. Likewise, God cannot sin or change, because those would be defects, not powers.

Aquinas argues that God’s power flows from His very essence. God is pure act, with no unrealized potential. Potentiality is the opposite of actuality – could be real vs. actually real.

To believe that God is all-powerful, then, is not to imagine Him as a cosmic superhero, flexing muscles greater than ours. It is to recognize Him as the source of all being, the One in whom the power of existence itself resides without limit.

Why Believe That God Is All-knowing

If God brings all things into being, then He must also know all things. This is because in order to be the efficient cause of something, the essence of that thing would need to be present in that cause.

However, God’s knowledge is different from human knowledge. Since God is the cause of all that exists, every creature exists as an idea in His mind, much like an artist knows the forms he creates by knowing his own design. God knows all things, not by looking outside Himself, but by knowing His own essence, which is the cause of all things, Aquinas says.

God’s knowledge is not limited by time or perspective. Past, present, and future are all immediately present to Him. He knows not only the necessary truths of mathematics and logic, but also every contingent detail of history.

A common question concerning God’s knowledge is the difficulty related to God “knowing the future” and our free will. Because this question ties together God’s knowledge and God’s eternity, I will explore this in a later article.

Why Believe That God Is All-good

If God is the source of all being and all truth, then He must also be the source of all goodness. Aquinas begins here with the classical insight that “being” and “goodness” are convertible. Whatever exists is good, at least insofar as it exists.

Since God is the fullness of being, He is therefore perfect goodness. There is no defect in Him, no shadow or mixture. “God is goodness itself,” Aquinas writes. His goodness is not one trait among others, but identical with His very essence.

This also explains why all created goods point back to Him. The beauty of a sunset, the integrity of a virtuous life, the joy of friendship – these are reflections of the infinite Goodness from which they come. To say God is all-good is not simply to say that He does good things, but that He is the very standard by which goodness is measured.

A common question when considering God’s goodness is the reality and essence of evil. St. Thomas considered this issue in its own question, so this topic will also be the subject of a future article.

Drawing the Threads Together

Each attribute of God flows logically from God’s nature as pure being itself. To misunderstand these attributes is often to mistake God for a very large creature, which leads to confusion or disbelief. But to understand them rightly is to glimpse the difference between Creator and creature, between the One who gives existence and those who receive it.

These truths are not abstract philosophy alone. They shape the Christian life. Believing in God’s omnipotence teaches us to trust His providence when our own strength fails. Believing in His omniscience assures us that our hidden struggles are seen and known. Believing in His goodness sustains us when we encounter evil and suffering.

The question of God’s existence matters greatly, but so does the question of God’s nature. When we ask not only whether God is, but also who God is, Aquinas helps us see that the answer is far richer than we might expect.

—

This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image credit: Pexels