may be described as follows: First a man loses his faith; then comes a period of practical unbelief, nourished sometimes by sensuality, sometimes by pride, until finally he is deluded into theoretical Atheism. Not infrequently moral corruption precedes infidelity as a cause. Cfr. Eph. IV, 18: "Tenebris obscuratum habentes intellectum, alienati a vita Dei per ignorantiam, quae est in illis propter caecitatem cordis ipsorum -Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts." 11

3. WHY ATHEISM IS INTRINSICALLY POSSIBLE.- Since the idea of God is spontaneous and forces itself almost irresistibly upon the human mind, purely moral causes do not suffice to explain Atheism; there must in each instance exist an intellectual factor also. This intellectual factor must be sought partly in the fallibility of human reason, which is controlled by the will, and partly in the circumstance that the proofs for the existence of God do not produce immediate certainty. On the one hand man has it in his power to disregard the more or less cogent features of these arguments and by concentrating his thoughts on the manifold objections raised against them, to notion that there is no God. arguments, as we have said,

11 On the psychology of unbelief, see X. Moisant, Psychologie de l'Incroyant, Paris 1908. Cfr. also

delude himself into the On the other hand, these carry no immediate, but

Hettinger-Bowden, Natural Religion, pp. I sqq.

only a mediate certainty, inasmuch as the conviction which they engender depends upon a long chain of middle terms.

The number of real atheists is impossible to ascertain. It depends on conditions of time, of milieu, of degree and method of education, and on various other agencies. Our age boasts the sorry distinction of being immersed in a flood of Atheism which it may take a social revolution to abate.12

READINGS:- Segneri, S. J., L'Incredulo senza scusa, Venezia 1690.-W. G. Ward, Essays on the Philosophy of Theism, 2 vols., London 1884.- Kaderavek, Der Atheismus, Wien 1884. -L. v. Hammerstein, Edgar, or From Atheism to the Full Truth, St. Louis 1903.-W. M. Lacy, An Examination of the Philosophy of the Unknowable, Philadelphia 1883.-A. W. Momerie, Agnosticism, London 1889.- ID., Belief in God, London 1891.-G. J. Lucas, Agnosticism and Religion, Baltimore 1895.-G. M. Schuler, Der Pantheismus, Würzburg 1881.- Id., Der Materialismus, Berlin 1890.-E. L. Fischer, Die modernen Ersatzversuche für das aufgegebene Christentum, Ratisbon 1903.- H. Schell, Der Gottesglaube und die naturwissenschaftliche Welterkenntnis, Bamberg 1904.-F. Aveling in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, s. v. "Atheism."-F. Hettinger, Natural Religion, New York 1890.-W. S. Lilly, The Great Enigma, 2nd ed., New York 1893.—L. A. Lambert, Notes on Ingersoll, Buffalo 1883.18-T. Finlay, S. J., Atheism as a Mental Phenomenon " in the Month (1878), pp. 186 sqq.

12 Cfr. C. Gutberlet, Theodicee, 2nd ed., § 2, Münster 1890; B. Boedder, S. J., Natural Theology, pp. 76 sqq., New York 1891; J. T. Driscoll, Christian Philosophy: God, 2nd ed., pp. 15 sq., New York 1904.

13 Father Lambert's Notes on Ingersoll has been published in numerous editions and shall be mentioned here, though it is, of course,

CHAPTER II

THE QUALITY OF MAN'S KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ACCORDING TO DIVINE REVELATION

It

The arguments for the existence of God not only prove His existence, but at the same time reveal each some one or other aspect of the Divine Essence.1 Whatever knowledge of the Divine Essence we may thus acquire from a consideration of finite things, is sure to be stamped with the birth mark of the creature. may be ennobled and transfigured by Revelation and faith, but they cannot change its substance. Not until we are admitted to the beatific vision in Heaven, does the abstractive and analogous knowledge of God acquired here on earth give way to that intuitive and perfect knowledge which enables us to see the Blessed Trinity as It is. Such are the limitations of the created intellect that it cannot even enjoy the beatific vision except by means of a specially infused light, called "lumen gloriae."

We shall treat of the two modes of knowing God, the earthly and the heavenly, in the next two sections, reserving a third section for the consideration of Eunomianism and Ontologism.

SECTION I

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AS IT IS HERE ON EARTH

In this section we shall consider, (1) the imperfection of our knowledge of God here below; (2) the threefold manner by which man can know God, viz.: (a) affirmation or causation, inferring the nature of His attributes from the nature of His works; (b) negation or remotion, excluding the idea of finite limitation; (c) intensification or eminence, ascribing every perfection to God which is consistent with His infinity, to the exclusion of all quantitative and temporal measures and comparisons; 2 and (3) certain. theological conclusions flowing therefrom.

ARTICLE I

THE IMPERFECTION OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IN THIS

LIFE

1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.-The perfection or imperfection of any act of cognition depends upon the manner in which we acquire our concepts. These may be, on the one hand, either

Cfr. G. M. Sauvage in the Catholic Encyclopedia, art. "Analogy,"

Vol. I, pp. 449 sq.