Like I said earlier, we just got back from the Holy Land. One of our first stops while there was along the Mediterranean Sea at a place called [I forgot!] We were there to see the ruins of some great something built by somebody. I was there to see something else.
I had just read in the Chesterton book about the life of Thomas Aquinas that as a young child, a teacher was astounded to hear the boy ask, "What is God?"
If I had been teaching him, I would have said something like God is not a "what", He is a "who", which is not a terrible answer. However, I would not have addressed little Thomas' question, and he would not and should not have been satisfied with my answer.
We know from Thomas the man that this question was a driving force in his life. What is God? One of the five basic answers he found by observing creation had to do with motion. Thomas' ability to look at simple things and see great concepts was a kind of trademark of his, I understand.
Thomas said about motion:
"For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality."
Potentiality has to do with what an object is able to do. Actuality is related to what an object actually is moved to do or to be.
Think about it in relation to heat and fire, as Thomas did. Here is what he said.:
"Thus that which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it."
His reasoning goes deeper as he works his develops this concept. First, something that is moved cannot move itself, it cannot be both mover and moved. In fact, we could apply this mover and moved, potentiality and actuality concept infinitely, were it not for one thing. Here's the punch like, so to speak.:
""Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God."
Pause and think calmly about that! Selah! Whammo!
Think about it in relation to a seed. Think about it in relation to a human child. Think about it in relation to the movement of water - which is what I did as I put my foot into the Mediterranean Sea and watched the motion of the water and light. Potentiality to actuality pointing me to the First Mover.
This was and is a concept that thrilled me and continues to thrill me even after many days. So simple, yet so foundational to our understanding of God.
We look at the motion of trees, and reason back to the wind that is making the trees move - or the earthquake, or whatever other phenomenon is causing the movement. Few of us look farther to see what caused the motion itself. As we continue to reason back to the causes of motion, we arrive at the undeniable fact that there was a first mover, or we should if we are thinking rationally.
God is the First Mover who set everything else into motion. Reason leads us to a first Mover, or we lose touch with reason altogether, as many have done in our day. Without a First Mover, potentiality to actuality does not make sense. Motion then would become like a never ending loop of random information with no real meaning behind it - which is where the post modern mind is at.
The full argument for the existence of God based on motion can be found in his Summa Theologica (Third Article [I, Q.2, Art.3]).
So, I put my foot into Thomism on that beach along the Israeli coast. I will never be the same again. I feel like a child being led around by a great lumbering ox of a man willing to show me what he has been shown. In fact, I could have given this blog the title of A Child's View From the Back of the Ox, but that sounds a bit cumbersome. Besides, why would a child be sitting on the back of an ox in the first place? On the other hand, flies love to attach themselves to oxen, but that's not a very pretty picture, either.
Anyway, I fear I might be mixing metaphors. A Child with Flies Riding on an Ox? No, I'll stick with View From the Cacho del Buey, but I also see myself as a child playing on the edges the great ocean of Christian philosophy, finding little bits of shells and beach glass to marvel at, and Thomas showing me that there is a great big ocean out there to explore. "Look deeper and farther, and do not fear where God may take us," he says.
No, I'm not hearing voices or seeing visions, but as I read Thomas, I feel like I'm getting to know a real person. Maybe that's a girl thing, since we are all about relationships.
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CHAPTER 3 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Regarding the unity of the divine essence, we must first believe that God exists. This is a truth clearly known by reason. We observe that all things that move are moved by other things, the lower by the higher. The elements are moved by heavenly bodies; and among the elements themselves, the stronger moves the weaker; and even among the heavenly bodies, the lower are set in motion by the higher. This process cannot be traced back into infinity. For everything that is moved by another is a sort of instrument of the first mover. Therefore, if a first mover is lacking, all things that move will be instruments. But if the series of movers and things moved is infinite, there can be no first mover. In such a case, these infinitely many movers and things moved will all be instruments. But even the unlearned perceive how ridiculous it is to suppose that instruments are moved, unless they are set in motion by some principal agent. This would be like fancying that, when a chest or a bed is being built, the saw or the hatchet performs its functions without the carpenter. Accordingly there must be a first mover that is above all the the rest; and this being we call God.
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