Divine Omnipresence
No height, depth or hidden place lies outside the God who fills all things
Divine omnipresence is the teaching that God is wholly present everywhere throughout his creation. Drawing on the tradition of Psalm 139, where no flight can escape God's presence, and developed by Augustine, it holds that God is not spread thinly across space but is fully present in every place at once. He sustains all that exists while remaining uncontained by it, near to all his creatures.
How it traveled
- ActsRome · 84explains
- Against Heresies: Book IILyons · 202explains
- The Octavius of Minucius Felix.Rome · 250explains
- The Incarnation of the WordAlexandria · 373explains
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · 386explains
- Expositions on the Book of PsalmsHippo Regius · 430explains
- The ConfessionsHippo Regius · 430explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430explains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · 430explains
- Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New TestamentHippo Regius · 430explains
- On the Morals of the Catholic ChurchHippo Regius · 430explains
- John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox FaithDamascus · 749explains
- MonologiumCanterbury · 1109explains
- ProslogiumCanterbury · 1109explains
- Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])Paris · 1274explains
Key passages(20)
Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
Since it evidently belongs to the infinite to be present everywhere, and in all things, we now consider whether this belongs to God; and concerning this there arise four points of inquiry: (1) Whethe
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Expositions on the Book of Psalms · Augustine of Hippo
8. “If I go up,” saith he, “to heaven, Thou art there: if I go down to Hades, Thou art present” (ver. 8). At length, miserable runaway, thou hast learnt, that by no means canst thou make thyself far f
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This Being is in all things, and throughout all; and all derive existence from it and exist through and in it. BUT if this is true—rather, since this must be true, it follows that, where this Being i
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It exists in every place and at every time. BUT, although it has been concluded above that this creative Nature exists everywhere, and in all things, and through all; and from the fact that it neithe
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It exists in no place or time. BUT, if this is true, either it exists in every place and at every time, or else only a part of it so exists, the other part transcending every place and time. But, if
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How it exists in every place and time, and in none. HOW, then, shall these prepositions, that are so necessary according to our exposition, and so necessary according to our proof, be reconciled? Per
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How he alone is uncircumscribed and eternal, although other spirits are uncircumscribed and eternal.—No place and time contain God. But he is himself everywhere and always. He alone not only does not
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The Incarnation of the Word · Athanasius of Alexandria
§17. How the Incarnation did not limit the ubiquity of the Word, nor diminish His Purity. (Simile of the Sun.) For He was not, as might be imagined, circumscribed in the body, nor, while present in t
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The Octavius of Minucius Felix. · Minucius Felix
Chapter XXXII.—Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as They are Persuaded that God Can Be Circumscribed by No
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Sect. XVI. — NOR are you right in the use of this example; nor in condemning the discussion of this subject before the multitude, as useless — that God is in a beetle’s hole and even in a sink! For yo
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Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 2: The indivisible is twofold. One is the term of the continuous; as a point in permanent things, and as a moment in succession; and this kind of the indivisible in permanent things
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Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
Further, others said that, although all things are subject to God's providence, still all things are not immediately created by God; but that He immediately created the first creatures, and these crea
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that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
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Against Heresies: Book II · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. If, again, they declare that these things [below] are a shadow of those [above], as some of them are bold enough to maintain, so that in this respect they are images, then it will be necessary for
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Expositions on the Book of Psalms · Augustine of Hippo
8. “God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved” (ver. 5). Let the sea rage, the mountains shake; “God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved.” What is, “in the midst of her”? That God
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Homilies on Second Corinthians · John Chrysostom
Not by our own wisdom, but instructed by the power that cometh from Him. Those who glory speak not in this way, but as bringing in something from themselves. Whence he elsewhere also turns them into r
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How it is better conceived to exist everywhere than in every place BUT, since it is plain that this supreme Nature is not more truly in all places than in all existing things, not as if it were conta
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On the Duties of the Clergy · Ambrose of Milan
47. But let us return to our point, lest we seem to have lost sight of the break we made in answering the ideas of those who, seeing some wicked men, rich, joyous, full of honours, and powerful, whils
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On the Morals of the Catholic Church · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 11.—God is the One Object of Love; Therefore He is Man’s Chief Good. Nothing is Better Than God. God Cannot Be Lost Against Our Will. 18. Following after God is the desire of happiness; to re
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He does not exist in place or time, but all things exist in him. BUT if through thine eternity thou hast been, and art, and wilt be; and to have been is not to be destined to be; and to be is not to
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