Aseity (Self-Existence of God)
God alone exists from himself, needing nothing to be
Aseity is the doctrine that God exists of and from himself, depending on nothing else for his being. The medieval term aseitas is Scholastic, but the idea is rooted in the Fathers, with Augustine and later Anselm in his Monologion giving it classic expression. It marks the radical difference between the Creator, who simply is, and creatures, who receive their existence from him.
How it traveled
- On the Morals of the ManichæansHippo Regius · 430explains
- MonologiumCanterbury · 1109explains
- ProslogiumCanterbury · 1109explains
- Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on The Creation (QQ[44-46])Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64)Paris · 1274explains
- Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the WorldNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
Key passages(20)
There is a certain Nature through which whatever is exists, and which exists through itself, and is the highest of all existing beings. THEREFORE, not only are all good things such through something
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This Nature was not brought into existence with the help of any external cause, yet it does not exist through nothing, or derive existence from nothing.—How existence through self, and derived from se
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Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 1.—God the Highest and Unchangeable Good, from Whom are All Other Good Things, Spiritual and Corporeal. The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and consequently He is unchang
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Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World · Jonathan Edwards
Some objections considered, which may be made against the reasonableness of what has been said of God making himself his last end. Object. I. Some may object against what has been said as being incon
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God is whatever it is better to be than not to be; and he, as the only self-existent being, creates all things from nothing. WHAT art thou, then, Lord God, than whom nothing greater can be conceived?
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God is the very life whereby he lives; and so of other like attributes. BUT undoubtedly, whatever thou art, thou art through nothing else than thyself. Therefore, thou art the very life whereby thou
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Against the Heathen. (Contra Gentes.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
§27. The refutation of popular Paganism being taken as conclusive, we come to the higher form of nature-worship. How Nature witnesses to God by the mutual dependence of all her parts, which forbid us
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Book First. of the Knowledge of God the Creator · John Calvin
In fine, let us remember that that invisible God, whose wisdom, power, and justice, are incomprehensible, is set before us in the history of Moses as in a mirror, in which his living image is reflecte
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Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World · Jonathan Edwards
Some things observed in general, which reason dictates. Having observed these things, to prevent confusion, I now proceed to consider what may, and what may not, be supposed to be God’s ultimate end
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The same subject continued. FURTHERMORE, if one observes the nature of things he perceives, whether he will or no, that not all are embraced in a single degree of dignity; but that certain among them
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In what way all other beings exist through this Nature and derive existence from it. THERE now remains the discussion of that whole class of beings that exist through another, as to how they exist th
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On the Morals of the Manichæans · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 4.—The Difference Between What is Good in Itself and What is Good by Participation. 6. Now, compare with this perplexity, from which you cannot escape, the consistency of the statements in th
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He alone is what he is and who he is.—All things need God for their being and their well-being. THEREFORE, thou alone, O Lord, art what thou art; and thou art he who thou art. For, what is one thing
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Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, Things other than God can be relatively infinite, but not absolutely infinite. For with regard to infinite as applied to matter, it is manifest that everything actually existing possess
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Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64) · Thomas Aquinas
After dealing with the nature of the angels, their knowledge and will, it now remains for us to treat of their creation, or, speaking in a general way, of their origin. Such consideration is threefold
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Extracts from the Work on Things Created. I. This selection is made, by way of compendium or synopsis, from the work of the holy martyr and bishop Methodius, concerning things created. The passage, “
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Against Hermogenes. · Anti-marcion
Chapter VII.—Hermogenes Held to His Theory in Order that Its Absurdity May Be Exposed on His Own Principles. When he contends that matter is less than God, and inferior to Him, and therefore diverse
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Answer to Eunomius' Second Book · Gregory of Nyssa
While, however, we strenuously avoid all concurrence with absurd notions in our thoughts of God, we allow ourselves in the use of many diverse appellations in regard to Him, adapting them to our point
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Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World · Jonathan Edwards
I would here observe, by the way, that if any insist that it becomes God to love and take delight in the virtue of his creatures for its own sake, in such a manner as not to love it from regard to him
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Dissertation on the End for Which God Created the World · Jonathan Edwards
God’s disposition to cause his own infinite fullness to flow forth, is not the less properly called his goodness, because the good he communicates is what he delights in, as he delights in his own glo
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