# Best Reformed literature on Divine simplicity



## Reformed Covenanter (Apr 21, 2014)

Brethren, in your opinion, what are the best Reformed sources on the doctrine of Divine simplicity? Thanks in advance for your replies.


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## louis_jp (Apr 21, 2014)

Dolezal's book is pretty good. I'm assuming he's Reformed, don't really know his church background: 

Helm's Deep: 'God Without Parts'


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## RamistThomist (Apr 21, 2014)

Richard Muller's volume 3, but HA! on getting it cheap or even used. 

Dolezal's gotten some good reviews. I haven't read it but he says he is following in the line of Bavinck. I'll email you a Bruce McCormack lecture on divine simplicity. It's magnificent.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Apr 21, 2014)

Baroque Norseman said:


> Richard Muller's volume 3, but HA! on getting it cheap or even used.



Since I own the 4-volumes, I will be laughing all the way to my personal library. 

I am looking forward to the Bruce McCormack lecture, thanks.


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## py3ak (Apr 21, 2014)

You could also consult John Preston's _Life Eternal_ (available on Google books). He treats simplicity expressly there, under the heading of God as a spirit.

I don't think that there is a _distinctively_ Reformed doctrine of God's simplicity, so the Protestant Scholastics would likely have pointed you back: to Augustine, perhaps to Anselm, certainly to Aquinas.


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## RamistThomist (Apr 21, 2014)

also look for archetypal/ectypal discussions. Muller does note some differences between later Reformed and Aquinas view (small differences; nothing huge).


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## Reformed Covenanter (Apr 21, 2014)

py3ak said:


> I don't think that there is a distinctively Reformed doctrine of God's simplicity, so the Protestant Scholastics would likely have pointed you back: to Augustine, perhaps to Anselm, certainly to Aquinas.



Yes, I was thinking along the same lines. Where do Augustine and Thomas Aquinas discuss the subject?


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## RamistThomist (Apr 21, 2014)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> py3ak said:
> 
> 
> > I don't think that there is a distinctively Reformed doctrine of God's simplicity, so the Protestant Scholastics would likely have pointed you back: to Augustine, perhaps to Anselm, certainly to Aquinas.
> ...



Per Augustine, Books 5 and 7 of De Trinitate and Books 8 and 10 of City of God. I am not convinced Augustine's treatment is the best. I am not persuaded that he untangled himself from all of the difficulties he got in. 

For Thomas, see:

1st Part; question 14, article 4 (links act and substance)

First Part: Question 19; Article 1; reply to objection 3 (links will with essence).

First Part: Question 28: Article 2 (he links relation and essence; keep in mind that the relation of opposition for thomas is the person)

First Part: Question 40; Article 1 (he links person and essence)

The question is whether "simplicity" acts as a great metaphyisical "=" for Thomas.


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## py3ak (Apr 21, 2014)

For Thomas, see _Summa Theologica_ Part I, Question 3, or in shorter compass his _Compendium_, chapter 9.

For Augustine, see _The Trinity_, Book VI, Chapter 2 (paragraph 8).

You could also find some help in Heppe's _Reformed Dogmatics_, Chapter V especially the first four sections.


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## Reformed Covenanter (Apr 21, 2014)

py3ak said:


> For Thomas, see _Summa Theologica_ Part I, Question 3, or in shorter compass his _Compendium_, chapter 9.
> 
> For Augustine, see _The Trinity_, Book VI, Chapter 2 (paragraph 8).
> 
> You could also find some help in Heppe's _Reformed Dogmatics_, Chapter V especially the first four sections.



Thanks; I read the relevant section in Aquinas (pp 28ff in the following link): https://archive.org/stream/summatheologic01thom#page/28/mode/2up


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## Sylvanus (Apr 21, 2014)

If I remember correctly, K Scott Oliphint had some helpful discussion on aseity in _Reason for Faith: Philosophy in the service of Theology_ (P&R Publishers, 2006). I suppose you are looking for the old works on God's simplicity; the bibliography may be helpful.


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## MW (Apr 21, 2014)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> Brethren, in your opinion, what are the best Reformed sources on the doctrine of Divine simplicity?



Theophilus Gale's Court of the Gentiles, vol. 4. It should be available on Google. There is also another edition on Archive. The latter includes an appendix with pertinent criticism of the new methodism (especially of John Howe) which brought in the doctrine of conflicting wills in God. This work goes through all the attributes of God and discusses them in the light of classical theism.


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## Reformed Covenanter (May 20, 2014)

py3ak said:


> You could also consult John Preston's Life Eternal (available on Google books).



I read his chapter on divine simplicity on Saturday night, and he is quoted at length in the appendix to my report. A good friend of mine did his PhD on Preston, which was subsequently published by Eerdmans: http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Hyp...&sr=8-1&keywords=Jonathan+Moore,+John+Preston (You can get it new for as little as £3!!  )


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## RamistThomist (May 20, 2014)

For those interested, here are my notes on Muller volume 3

I usually don't take copious notes when I read books. This book, though, is of importance. Further, it is out of print (I will forgo the usual slams against Baker Academic at the moment) and I acquired it temporarily via ILL. So anything I learn from the book has to last permanently. Hence, the notes.



Notes on Muller, PRRD 3

Simplicity in pre-Reformation

The scholastic understanding of “identity” assumes various levels of identity (essential and formal), so the term “identity” does not indicate radical equation in every sense posssible (40 n. 63).

The goal is “to argue a certain manner of distinction (for the sake of manifesting the three) while at the very same time denying other kinds of distinction (for the sake of confessing the one)” (41).

Normally speaking essence and existence are not identified. The essence “humanity” is not synonymous with any one human (52).

Simplicity and Predication

Many critique absolute divine simplicity as eliminating the possibility of any real predication (on our part) of the divine essence. But when medievals used this term, all they meant was that God is not composite (54-55)

Plurality in God is secundum rationem, not secundum re (55).

Development and Decline of late orthodoxy

Interestingly, the medievals viewed “space” and time,” not as things but as relations (148).

Existence and knowledge of God

The orthodox followed three ways of approach to the problem of the knowledge of God (166):

via causationes (a cause can be known in some manner from its effects)
via emimentiae(we attribute to God all the perfections known to creataures)
via negationis (we remove from God the imperfections known to creatures)
Rules of predication

“Predication is the logical act of attribution by which a subject is united with a predicate” (197).

Disproportionality between finite and infinite.


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