Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are once again taking a plunge into the ocean of truth. We’ve been studying the doctrine of God and the Summa Theologica has been our guide. Those who do not have ready access to a copy of the Summa can find one at newadvent.org that can be read online, although I have no objections to readers going to Amazon and buying a copy. Tonight, our question starts the chapter on the goodness of God. Before we get to our question, I wish to present my prayer requests. First off, I ask for prayer for my growing Christlikeness. Special people in my life are showing me great ways to improve. Second, I ask for prayers for my finances. Third, I ask for prayers for a third related area in my life. Now, let’s get to the question.
Is God good? As I prepare to write about this question, I wonder how many readers might be surprised to find out that the medievals actually asked this question. Some of us could say “Well it’s in the Bible that he is.” The medievals knew that, but they wanted to be able to demonstrate what they could apart from the Bible as well, particularly when dealing with those who did not accept any divine revelation.
But the question still remains. Aquinas of course answers in the affirmative and says that indeed God is good. This is because each creature that is out there seeks its own perfection. Everything is good according to its desirableness and everything desires its own perfection. Any effect that is perfect bears a likeness to its cause and so its cause in its perfection must be great. God as the first cause is the cause of goodness in all other things and he being the perfect one is good above all.
There is an objector however and he wants to know that if God is good because he is what all desire, then what of those who do not know God? What about those who even deny his existence? Are we going to say that they’re desiring God?
Aquinas’s answer?
Yes.
They desire God in that they desire their own perfection and that perfection can only be found in God. We would speak of seeking the transcendentals. I have said before that if someone is truly seeking the good, the true, and the beautiful, they will eventually find their way to God. It is not enough that they seek a thing that is good, true, or beautiful. They must seek that which is the cause of goodness, truth, and beauty.
When the atheist searches like this, they will find their way to God. Of course, in our world, it’s becoming more and more common to deny the existence of all three of these. Beauty has been one to go as we say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Moral relativism is removing goodness from us. Today with the postmodern movement, there are many who are questioning the existence of objective truth and if we can even know it if it exists.
What will happen when our society loses all sense of these? I don’t like to think about it. I don’t think it can happen entirely however. I don’t think anyone can live in constant denial of the good, the true, and the beautiful. As soon as you choose to do anything, you admit a goodness exists. Even if you choose suicide. You choose that because you think it better than other options.
Nevertheless, our society needs to return to embracing these three.
We shall continue studying the goodness of God tomorrow.
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