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How did Thomas Aquinas distinguish God from created beings through essence and existence?
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Thomism
St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
In his theological and philosophical system, St. Thomas Aquinas established a fundamental distinction between God and created beings based on the relationship between essence and existence.123
Aquinas conceived of being as the act of existing (esse). His distinction is defined as follows:12
- God: In God, essence and existence are identical. God is "pure being," meaning his essence is his existence. He is the only being whose nature is to exist, and he is the source of all existence.123
- Created Beings: Creatures possess a real composition of essence and existence. They do not exist by their own nature; rather, they "participate" in being to the extent that their specific essence (such as humanity) permits. Because their existence is distinct from their essence, they are contingent and depend entirely on God for their being.123
This metaphysical framework allows Aquinas to maintain that while creatures have a genuine, autonomous nature, their existence is a gift derived from the creative act of God, who alone is existence itself.13