Simplicity of Divine Essence Theory, Contact of Two Philosophical Paradigms

Abstract

From long time ago, simplicity of Divine Essence was hold by many philosophers and theologian of great religions such as Christianity and Islam. On one hand, in Islamic tradition, philosophers like Ibn Sina and Mullah Sadra, and on the other hand, in Christian tradition, theologians like Augustine and Anselm and especially Aquinas attempted to strengthen the substructure of this doctrine and to explain various aspects of it. One important aspect of this doctrine, with which the present essay deals, is the same-ness of God’s essence and his real attributes such as knowledge and power. This aspect of the doctrine has been recently criticized by some contemporary philosophers of religion like Alvin Plantinga. Reviewing the viewpoints of the proponents of the doctrine in the two Islamic and Christian traditions, the essay presents a more accurate articulation of Aquinas’ viewpoint. Then, it examines the foundation of Plantinga’s criticisms. And finally, it shows that these criticisms have been raised in a paradigm quite different from that of classical philosophers, and thus they may not produce any difficulty for the above-mentioned doctrine when considered in the paradigm of classical philosophy.