Znaleźć twórcę i ojca tego całego wszechświata jest wielkim przedsięwzięciem (Tim. 28c). Myśl starożytności i chrześcijańskiej i średniowiecza w poszukiwaniu Boga jako ens perfectum

• Authors: Kijewska Agnieszka

Title variants

EN

“Now to discover the poet and father of this all is quite task” (tim. 28c): thinkers of christian antiquity and the middle ages in search for god as ens perfectum

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

When we talk about a perfect being, we can mean two mutually non-excluding states, although accentuated differently. A perfect being is, first, a being that lacks nothing, and therefore the distinguishing feature of such a being is, above all, immutability. In Christian Antiquity we find such a concept in those thinkers who emphasized the perfection and immutability of the Divine Being, as exemplified by the thought of St. Augustine with his noological argument for the existence of God, understood as the supreme, unchanging Truth. In a certain sense, it can be said that this idea of a perfect being culminates in the thought of St. Anselm of Canterbury in his ontological proof, which presupposes that God is to that extent perfect that He cannot be conceived as non-existent. In another sense, the perfection of God is understood above all as the incomparable intensity of His mode of existence, the essential expression of which is infinity. This current of thought was rooted in Neoplatonism, and especially in Plotinian philosophy. We find this very idea in Aquinas, for whom the Being of God is a pure, infinite – because unlimited – Being, whose fullness of perfection is expressed in the Name: ‘I Am who I am’. For Duns Scotus, the proper concept of God is the concept of infinite being, with infinity understood as the specific modus intrinsecus of God's existence. This concept of God’s perfection culminates in the thought of Nicholas of Cusa, for whom God is the absolute Maximum and Minimum, to which one can draw nearer through mathematical symbols raised to infinity. Another way of expressing God’s perfection is through negation of being; because of the otherness of God’s mode of existence, it is more appropriate to call him Nothingness. We find this type of thinking in the philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena and Meister Eckhart. This article presents, on selected examples from Christian Antiquity and the Middle Ages, these three concepts of God: (1) as a Perfect Being; (2) as Nothingness, (3) as an Infinite Being.

Keywords

EN

ancient and medieval christian thought; the concept of god; Ens perfectum; nothingness; an infinite being

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Umiejętności / Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Kwartalnik Filozoficzny
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1-4
• Pages: 91-130

Contributors

author

Kijewska Agnieszka

• Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski, Wydział Filozofii, al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland