6.4 God as the Good of Every Good and as the Highest Good (SCG 1,40–41)
6.4 God as the Good of Every Good and as the Highest Good (SCG 1,40–41)
In chapter 2 of book 8 of his De Trinitate (On the Trinity), St. Augustine of Hippo refers to God as being “not good with some other good, but the good of every good.” Augustine seems to be saying that God is not a good such and such but is goodness itself. He writes: “Take away this and that and see God, not good with some other good, but the good of every good.”12 In SCG 1,40 Aquinas picks up on the phrase “good of every good” (omnis boni bonum). Goodness, he says, is what God is, and good things in the world receive any goodness they have from the goodness that God essentially is. In SCG 1,41 Aquinas follows up this thought by insisting that God is the highest good (summum bonum) since (1) God is the good of every good, (2) God is good essentially, (3) all goodness in creatures derives from God, and (4) there is nothing evil in God.