Aseity (Self-Existence of God)

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.