Participation And Creation In Augustine And Aquinas -- By: Yonghua Ge

Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 66:1 (NA 2015)
Article: Participation And Creation In Augustine And Aquinas
Author: Yonghua Ge


Participation And Creation In Augustine And Aquinas1

Yonghua Ge

([email protected])

‘The One and the Many’ names one of the most ancient debates in philosophy—it enquires whether reality is ultimately a unity or a plurality and how the two relate if we admit to both. For most people today, this topic seems too archaic to have any relevance. However, in his Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford in 1992, The One, the Three and the Many, Colin Gunton sought to analyze the ills of modernity—excessive secularism and radical fragmentation—in the frame of the One and the Many. He argued that the dominant mode of the Western philosophical and theological tradition tended to prioritize unity over plurality and as a result led to the revolt of the Many against the One in modern thought. On this interpretation, the origin of the modern problem lies in the failure of classical Western theologians, such as Augustine and Aquinas, in offering an adequate Christian solution to the problem of ‘the One and the Many’.

In the past few decades, Gunton’s thesis has generated much energy in theological discussions. However, despite the growing literature on Gunton, no substantial response has been made to his central challenges: Did Augustine and Aquinas really succumb to and perpetuate the defect of Platonism—the tendency to disparage multiplicity? Is there an adequate resolution to the modern problem— an ontology in which all things are unified by the One which does not diminish but preserves the integrity of plurality? This thesis, to an extent, seeks to respond to these two key questions.

Since Gunton was convinced that the ultimate solution to problem of ‘the One and the Many’ must consist in ontological reconstruction on the basis of Trinitarian thought, a brief assessment of his

‘Trinitarian Ontology’ is made in the introduction. An analysis of the three transcendentals for his ontology—perichoresis, substantiality and relationality—suggests that his proposal is not as successful as intended. In particular, his preoccupation with horizontal relationality—inner relations within the Godhead and inter-relations between creatures—seems to have made his system deeply deficient in vertical relationality, namely creatures’ ontological relationship to God. An alternative, better solution to the problem of the One and the Many, I argue, can in fact be found in the Christianized idea of participation in classical theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas, who profoundly transformed this originally Platonic concept in the light of creatio ex nihilo. The rest of...

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe
visitor : : uid: ()