The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of PhilosophyBoethius
Religion
The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius
Happiness; Philosophy and religion; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
There are in all ten categories which can be universally predicated of
things, namely, Substance, Quality, Quantity, Relation, Place, Time,
Condition, Situation, Activity, Passivity. Their meaning is determined
by the contingent subject; for some of them denote substance in making
predication of other things, others belong to the class of accidents.
But when these categories are applied to God they change their meaning
entirely. Relation, for instance, cannot be predicated at all of God;
for substance in Him is not really substantial but supersubstantial. So
with quality and the other possible attributes, of which we must add
examples for the sake of clearness.
When we say God, we seem to denote a substance; but it is a substance
that is supersubstantial. When we say of Him, "He is just," we mention a
quality, not an accidental quality--rather a substantial and, in fact, a
supersubstantial quality.[20] For God is not one thing because He is,
and another thing because He is just; with Him to be just and to be God
are one and the same. So when we say, "He is great or the greatest," we
seem to predicate quantity, but it is a quantity similar to this
substance which we have declared to be supersubstantial; for with Him to
be great and to be God are all one. Again, concerning His Form, we have
already shown that He is Form, and truly One without Plurality. The
categories we have mentioned are such that they give to the thing to
which they are applied the character which they express; in created
things they express divided being, in God, conjoined and united being--
in the following manner. When we name a substance, as man or God, it
seems as though that of which the predication is made were substance
itself, as man or God is substance. But there is a difference: since a
man is not simply and entirely man, and in virtue of this he is not
substance. For what man is he owes to other things which are not man.
But God is simply and entirely God, for He is nothing else than what He
is, and therefore is, through simple existence, God. Again we apply
just, a quality, as though it were that of which it is predicated; that
is, if we say "a just man or just God," we assert that man or God is
just. But there is a difference, for man is one thing, and a just man is
another thing. But God is justice itself. So a man or God is said to be
great, and it would appear that man is substantially great or that God
is substantially great. But man is merely great; God is greatness.
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