9.2 Power in God (SCG 2,7–10)
Aquinas distinguishes between (1) passive power and (2) active power. On the one hand, he thinks, what exists might be able to (have the “power” to) be acted on by something other than itself. Thus, for example, I can be, or am able to be, carried around by people stronger than myself. On the other hand, though, Aquinas holds that what exists might have the ability or “active power” to act on or in something other than itself. Hence, for example, I might be able to carry my cat around.
From what he says in SCG 1, you will realize that Aquinas denies that there is passive power in God, and you will realize why he does so. In SCG 2,7, however, he emphasizes that God has active power considered as “the principle of acting upon another as such.” He adds: “But it is proper to God to be the source of being to other things. Therefore, it pertains to him to be powerful.”8 In SCG 2,8 Aquinas argues that God’s power is God’s very substance since (1) there is no potentiality in God, (2) since God is his own being, (3) since perfection in God (including power) is contained in God’s very being (see SCG 1,28), (4) since there are no accidents in God (see SCG 1,23), and (5) since “God is agent through his very self.”9 Working with these thoughts in mind, Aquinas argues in SCG 2,9–10 that God’s power is his action. He means that God, who is simple, is not to be distinguished from his acts of willing, whether that involves willing his own goodness or willing, and thereby bringing about, the existence of creatures. Strictly speaking, says Aquinas, God’s active power does not belong to him by essence since God does not have to act so as to bring about what is not divine. We can, thinks Aquinas, only attribute active power to God on the basis of him making things exist. Still, Aquinas is clear that God has active power, which is not an accident in him or something added to him. Active power belongs to God insofar as he is eternally able to go out of himself, as it were, and bring about the existence of effects that are not divine.