Relation of God to the Universe

1. Essential Dependence of the Universe on God (Creation and

Conservation)

In developing the argument of the First Cause we have seen that the world is

essentially dependent on God, and this dependence implies in the first place that

God is the Creator of the world -- the producer of its whole being or substance --

and in the next place, supposing its production, that its continuance in being at

every moment is due to His sustaining power. Creation (q.v.) means the total

production of a being out of nothing, i.e. the bringing of a being into existence to

replace absolute nonexistence, and the relation of Creator is the only conceivable

relation in which the Infinite can stand to the finite. Pantheistic theories, which

would represent the varieties of being in the universe as so many determinations

or emanations or phases of one and the selfsame eternal reality -- Substance

according to Spinoza, Pure Ego according to Fichte, the Absolute according to

Schelling, the Pure Idea or Logical Concept according to Hegel -- simply bristle

with contradictions, and involve, as has been stated already, a denial of the

distinction between the finite and the infinite. And the relation of Creator to

created remains the same even though the possibility of eternal creation be

admitted; the Infinite must be the producer of the finite even though it be

impossible to fix a time at which production may not already have taken place.

For certain knowledge of the fact that created being, and time itself, had a

definite beginning in the past we can afford to rely on revelation, although, as

already stated, science suggests the same fact.

It is also clear that if the universe depends on God for its production, it must also

depend on Him for its conservation or continuance in being; and this truth will

perhaps be best presented by explaining the much talked-of principle of Divine

immanence as corrected and counterbalanced by the equally important principle

of Divine transcendence.

2. Divine Immanence and Transcendence

To Deists is attributed the view -- or at least a tendency towards the view -- that

God, having created the universe, leaves it to pursue its own course according to

fixed laws, and ceases, so to speak, to take any further interest in, or

responsibility for what may happen; and Divine immanence is urged, sometimes

too strongly, in opposition to this view. God is immanent, or intimately present, in

the universe because His power is required at every moment to sustain creatures

in being and to concur with them in their activities. Conservation and concursus

are so to speak, continuations of creative activity, and imply an equally intimate

relation of God towards creatures, or rather an equally intimate and unceasing

dependence of creatures on God. Whatever creatures are, they are by virtue of

God's conserving power; whatever they do, they do by virtue of God's concursus.

It is not, of course, denied that creatures are true causes and produce real

effects; but they are only secondary causes, their efficiency is always dependent

and derived; God as the First Cause is an ever active cooperator in their actions.

This is true even of the free acts of an intelligent creature like man; only it should

be added in this case that Divine responsibility ceases at the point where sin or

moral evil enters in. Since sin as such, however, is an imperfection, no limitation

is thus imposed on God's supremacy.

But lest insistence on Divine immanence should degenerate into Pantheism --

and there is a tendency in this direction on the part of many modern writers -- it

is important at the same time to emphasize the truth of God's transcendence, to

recall, in other words, what has been stated several times already, that God is

one simple and infinitely perfect personal Being whose nature and action in their

proper character as Divine infinitely transcend all possible modes of the finite,

and cannot, without contradiction, be formally identified with these.

3. Possibility of the Supernatural

From a study of nature we have inferred the existence of God and deduced

certain fundamental truths regarding His nature and attributes, and His relation to

the created universe. And from these it is easy to deduce a further important

truth, with a brief mention of which we may fittingly conclude this section.

However wonderful we may consider the universe to be, we recognize that neither

in its substance nor in the laws by which its order is maintained, in so far as

unaided reason can come to know them, does it exhaust God's infinite power or

perfectly reveal His nature. If then it be suggested that, to supplement what

philosophy teaches of Himself and His purposes, God may be willing to favour

rational creatures with an immediate personal revelation, in which He aids the

natural powers of reason by confirming what they already know, and by imparting

to them much that they could not otherwise know, it will be seen at once that

this suggestion contains no impossibility. All that is required to realize it is that

God should be able to communicate directly with the created mind, and that men

should be able to recognize with sufficient certainty that the communication is

really Divine -- and that both of these conditions are capable of being fulfilled no

Theist can logically deny (see REVELATION; MIRACLES). This being so lt will

follow further that knowledge so obtained, being guaranteed by the authority of

Him who is infinite Truth, is the most certain and reliable knowledge we can

possess.

P.J. TONER

Transcribed by Tomas Hancil

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI

Nihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor

Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York