Zain's Guide to Overthinking Everything

Debating The Filioque and Incarnation: A Comparative Analysis of Eastern Orthodox and Thomistic Perspectives on the Trinity The Eastern Orthodox claim that the three persons in the Trinity have the same divine will and power since they are the One God. However, if one does not affirm that they have the possibility of becoming incarnate then this would entail that they do not have the same power as only the Son has the power to become incarnate, while the Father and Holy Spirit cannot. If there are three persons who are each divine and yet share different powers then there is a strong argument that this leads to three gods rather than one. The idea that the Son alone has the power to become incarnate comes from Book 4 Chapter 4 of An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith by John of Damascus, “The Father is Father and not Son: the Son is Son and not Father: the Holy Spirit is Spirit and not Father or Son. For the individuality is unchangeable. How, indeed, could individuality continue to exi...

The Paradox of Multiplicity in Divine Simplicity According to many Aristotelian philosophers, all bodies have the inseparable property of motion and it does not proceed from the nature of bodies themselves and thus motion demands an external source or a prime mover. The series of moving causes must stop at an immovable object that moves everything else to avoid an infinite regress of movers. This first mover is God. Since the transition from non-existence to existence is a form of motion and motion requires matter then God must be immaterial and eternal while all things created by it are material and in motion. God is free from matter and therefore is free from motion and therefore cannot change and therefore is pure act ( actus purus ) and also therefore God must be completely simple as God is not made of parts. Now the question is in regards to creation, how can the many be created by one or how can something like God who is completely simple create multiplicity or how can a single c...

Notes of the Overview of the Early Church Fathers: On the Trinity and Incarnation      In our exploration of early Christian thought, our focus is directed towards understanding the evolving perspectives on the Trinity and the Incarnation as articulated by influential figures within the Church such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria, Athanasius, and others, thus providing a comprehensive understanding of the theological landscape that shaped Christianity during its nascent stages. While I cannot go over all the early church fathers since that would take up the length of the book, investigating these influential individuals who are mostly saints will have to suffice. This will also ignore early modalist theologians (who believed that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one person and modes of God), gnostic theologians (who believed in many gods and that Jesus was not a human), and Jewish-christian th...

The Essence-Existence Distinction Under Thomas Aquinas One of my previous blogs discussed the doctrine of Divine Processions and specifically the procession of the Son by way of knowing was explained. In that blog I wrote,  “However, God knows himself perfectly and he is the only thing that can possibly understand his own essence. In his act of understanding himself it will be a perfect image with the same essence as it will be identical as it will be a reflection of his essence. Therefore, the Son proceeds by way of knowing. Knowledge is a procession. The reason why it becomes a person is because it is the perfect image of the divine essence.” This made me ask why this is the case? Could God imagine anything such as a unicorn and “by way of knowing” it exists? But then I continued to think and it hit me! Perhaps the difference between the Logos and a unicorn is that the former procession presupposes that existence is part of essence. God could imagine a perfect unicorn but that al...

Trinitarian Dynamics: Exploring Divine Processions and Relations in Thomistic Theology     Under a Thomistic interpretation of Christianity, God the Father is the one who possesses the divine essence in an absolute sense such that he is unbegotten. Before all ages he has always been and will be an eternal act of communicating the divine essence out. Imagine having an idea about yourself, this idea is like you but it will not be exactly you due to human limitations of imagination and therefore, will not be a perfect image. However, God knows himself perfectly and he is the only thing that can possibly understand his own essence. In his act of understanding himself it will be a perfect image with the same essence as it will be identical as it will be a reflection of his essence. Therefore, the Son proceeds by way of knowing. Knowledge is a procession. The reason why it becomes a person is because it is the perfect image of the divine essence.       ...

Unveiling the Divine: Duns Scotus vs Aquinas on God’s Attributes Discussions about the nature of God have captivated the minds of scholars, theologians, and philosophers for centuries. One perspective is that of John Duns Scotus, a medieval thinker whose ideas on the attributes of God have set him apart from many of his contemporaries, including the renowned Thomas Aquinas. In this blog post, heavily inspired by Jake Brancatella ’ s dialogue on the subject, we will delve into Duns Scotus' intriguing beliefs about God's attributes, examining how they diverge from Aquinas' understanding. Duns Scotus believed that God has real attributes that are not identical to each other nor to His essence yet they are inseparable from each other and the essence. They are not free floating entities apart from God. God cannot exist without them nor can they exist without God. At least in the Sunni Athari position, when it is said that God cannot exist without His attribute and His attributes...