The Calvinist International
Sententiae 1.2.1b carries on in the same vein:1 Non ita putandus est esse in omnibus Deus ut unaquaeque res pro magnitudine portionis suae capiat eum, id est maxima maius, et minima minus, dum sit potius ipse totus in omnibus, sive omnia in ipso. God must not be thought of as being in all things in such […]
We now move on to the second chapter in the first book of Isidore’s Sententiae, which is titled Quod inmensus et omnipotens Deus (“That God is immense and omnipotent”). Cazier breaks the first sententia into two; I follow him here.1 Non ideo caelum et terram implet Deus ut contineant eum, sed ut ipsa potius contineantur ab eo. Nec […]
We come to the end of the first chapter of Book 1 of the Sententiae.1 Inordinate dici seu conferri vitiis ea quae ordinate in Deo sunt, utpote simplicitas, quae aliquando dicitur pro stultitia, et non est. Apud Deum vero summa simplicitas est. Iuxta hanc regulam et cetera aestimanda sunt. [It is evident that] the things that […]
Cazier divides the next sententia into two parts, 1.1.6a and 1.1.6b. I’m going to follow him here. In this sententia Isidore draws the conclusion of divine simplicity:1 Ideo Deus dicitur simplex, sive non amittendo quod habet, seu quia non aliud est ipse et aliud quod in ipso est. For that reason God is called simple, whether by […]
In the fifth sententia of the first chapter of Book 1, Isidore gives a summary statement of an idea familiar in Western divinity: that the divine attributes are identical with the divine essence (as one example from recent history, cf. Bavinck here). As John of Damascus says, “[O]ne may not speak of quality in connection with […]
Given what has already been said, the question naturally arises: what do we make, then, of the fact that God seems to change course at various points in revealed history?1 Opus, non consilium apud Deum mutari, nec variari eum quia per varia tempora diversa praecepit; sed manens idem incommutabilis et aeternus, quid cuique congruum esset […]
In the third sententia in the first chapter of Book 1 of his Sententiae, Isidore focuses on God’s immateriality.1 3. Quod materiam habet, unde existat, mutabile est, quia de informi ad formam transit. Quod vero non habet materiam, immutabile est, sicut Deus utique est. Bene, ac substantialiter sunt ista in Deo, id est, incorruptio, immortalitas, incommutabilitas. Unde et […]
In Sententiae 1.1.2, Isidore equates God’s immortality with his immutability:1 2. Quid est Dei immortalitas, nisi eius incommutabilitas? Nam et angeli et animae immortales sunt, sed immutabiles non sunt; ideoque solus Deus dicitur immortalis, quia solus incommutabilis est. Nam anima moritur, dum, deserente Deo, de bono in malum mutatur, sic et angelus, dum, deserente Deo, est lapsus. 2. […]
The sixth/seventh century churchman Isidore of Seville authored, among other things, an early collection of Christian Sententiae, in three books. Most of the opinions in it are drawn from Augustine and Gregory the Great. The first book begins with God. Its first chapter has the title Quod Deus summus et incommutabilis sit (“That God is the […]