Reasonable Faith Podcast Question of the Week #968: Maximal Greatness and Being Itself Subsisting
Dec 25, 2025
Dive into a fascinating discussion on two major conceptions of God: Anselm's view of maximal greatness versus Aquinas' notion of God as 'being itself subsisting.' Explore the tension between these ideas and whether they can coexist. Discover how defining God doesn’t limit Him but rather clarifies His qualities, making the divine more understandable. The insights shed light on how determinate attributes help us grasp God's nature, in contrast to more ambiguous perspectives that lead to uncertainty.
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Greatness Requires Positive Determination
- A maximally great being must possess many great-making properties like goodness, omnipotence, and omniscience.
- Craig says these determinant properties do not limit God negatively but define him positively.
Determinacy Makes God Intelligible
- William Lane Craig contrasts Anselm's and Aquinas' conceptions of God to show their tension.
- He argues Anselm's determinate perfections make God intelligible while Aquinas' indeterminacy yields agnosticism.
Aquinas: God as Subsisting Being
- Thomas Aquinas conceives God as ipsum esse subsistens, the act of being itself, denying that God has properties in the ordinary sense.
- Craig notes that on Thomas's view saying 'God is good' is not literally true but a metaphorical attribution.