PAGE § 2. Man's Knowledge of God as it Will be in Heaven 80 ART. 1. The Reality and the Supernatural Character of the Intuitive Vision of God. . . . 80 ART. 2. The Light of Glory as a Necessary Medium for the Intuitive Vision of God . . . IOI ART. 3. The Beatific Vision in its Relation to the § 3. Eunomianism and Ontologism § 1. The "Seven Holy Names of God' in the Old § 2. The Names Applied to God in the New Testa- ment and in Profane Literature- The Sym- bolic Appellations . § 2. The Virtual Distinction Between God's Essence CH. III. The Metaphysical Essence of God § 2. Aseity the Fundamental Attribute of God PART III. THE DIVINE PROPERTIES OR ATTRIBUTES CH. I. God's Transcendental Attributes of Being CH. II. God's Categorical Attributes of Being. § 1. God's Absolute Substantiality GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO DOGMATIC THEOLOGY NOTION, RANK, AND DIVISION OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY I. GENERAL DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY.-Dogmatic theology forms an essential part of theology in general, and to define it correctly, therefore, we must have an adequate notion of the latter. Theology, then, generally speaking, is the science of faith (scientia fidei). a) Theology, like all other sciences, deduces unknown truths from known and certain principles, by means of correct conclusions. The dogmatician receives, and believingly embraces as his principle, the infallible truths of Revelation, and by means of logical construction, systematic grouping, and correct deductions, erects upon this foundation a logical body of doctrine, as does the historian who works with the facts of history, or the jurist who is occupied with the statutes, or the scientist who employs bodies and their phenomena as materials for scientific construction. It is true that some Scholastics, e. g., Durandus and Vasquez, have denied to theology the dignity of a science, because it affords no intrinsic insight into the How and Why of Catholic dogmas, particularly the mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, etc.1 But neither do the profane sciences afford us always and everywhere an insight into their highest principles. Euclidian geometry, for instance, stands and falls with the axiom of parallels, which has never yet been satisfactorily proved; - so much so that of late years there has been made an attempt to establish a "non-Euclidian geometry" independent of that axiom. To this should be added the consideration that there are sciences which derive their basic principles as lemmata from some higher science. Such, for example, is metaphysics, which is quite generally admitted to be a true science. Hence it is plain that the notion of a science, while of course it includes certainty, does not necessarily include evidence on the part of its principles. According to the luminous teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Duplex est scientiarum genus. Quaedam enim sunt, quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine naturalis intellectus, sicut arithmetica, geometria et huiusmodi; quaedam vero sunt, quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, sicut perspectiva procedit ex principiis notificatis per geometriam et musica ex principiis per arithmeticam notis. Et hoc modo sacra doctrina [i. e., theologia] est scientia, quia procedit ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, quae scil. est scientia Dei et beatorum. Unde sicut musicus credit principia tradita sibi ab arithmetico, ita doctrina sacra credit principia revelata sibi a Deo." 3 2 1 Cfr. Hebr. xi, 1: "Fides. argumentum non apparentium." 2 Summa Theol., 1a, qu. 1, art. 2. 3 |
