The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

IMMANENTLY TRANSCENDENT AND SUBSISTENT ESSE: A COMPARISON I. THE Goo-PROBLEM IN AN AGE characterized by intellectual restlessness it is perhaps not so strange that man should show an uncommon concern for the problems of God and religious language. Experiencing the harrowing symptoms of cultural shock the man of the latter part of the twentieth century impatiently casts about for the meaning of human existence, and, regardless of the ultimate direction of this thought, almost compulsively engages in an analysis and reexamination of the problem of God. In his alienation and technological loneliness contemporary man craves a transcendental companionship which will reassure him of the importance of his limited life span, and will somehow free him from the fearful judgment that human existence is absurd. He rebels against the concept of an all-perfect and unchanging God, for he cannot see how such a God could be relevant to his own life and contemporary society.1 Yet, after attempting to refashion God according to his own image, and having reduced the transcendental aspect of God to that of mere immanentism, or shadowy presence, his agony of estrangement begins anew, for he recognizes that a God made in his own image cannot free him from the torments 1 Schubett M. Ogden, e. g. sums up the current God-crisis this way: " Man today finds this [traditional] form of faith so objectionable because it directly contradicts his profound secularity, his deep conviction of the reality and significance of this world of time and change and of his own life within it. . . . We now realize that whatever is real and important must somehow include the present world of becoming which we must certainly know and affirm, and this means that we find the classical form of Christian theism simply incredible." " Toward a New Theism," as found in Process Philosophy and Christian Thought, Delwin Brown, Ralph E. James, Jr., Gene Reeves, Editors (New York: The BohbsMerrill Co., 1971), pp. 180-181. IMMANENTLY TRANSCENDENT AND SUBSISTENT ESSE 333 of his own doubts about the meaning of history and the great "human experiment." Thus it is not surprising that the philosopher's concern for ultimate meaning should inevitably lead him back to a reevaluation of the problem of God. How man responds to that problem will just as inevitably shape his vision of himself, of his world, and of all mankind. Even though for some God may be dead, the problem of God is very much alive. The resurgence of religious philosophy and philosophical theology in the academic circles of our own day gives evidence of the centrality of this concern with God and the transcendental in human consciOusness . How the philosopher formulates the God-problem and his success in dealing with it depends quite obviously on his own vision of reality, for from this vision are fashioned the instruments he will employ in conducting his analysis. Living as he does in a post-nineteenth-century world it is wholly understandable that contemporary man should be almost instinctively aware of his own dizzying pace of cultural and technological development. Time has become for him an essential ingredient of the progress formula, and he has come to view life itseli as an evolution toward a higher and higher synthesis. The basic paradigm of much of contemporary theological philosophy has become process, and the Greek world is now commonly looked upon as representative of naive, atavistic thinking, incapable of containing the new heady wines of thought pressed from the rich, insightful grapes of a maturing and expanding world. In view of these developments it appears opportune that the voice of one who spoke of the God-problem with profound human conviction and insight be allowed to re-enter the dialogue . It has been 700 years since the death of St. Thomas Aquinas, but the passing of seven centuries has not stilled his voice nor has it obscured the lucid musings of his mind. It is regrettable that many who speak of his thought with thinlydisguised disdain or patronizing condescension present uncon- 334 JAMES B. REICHMANN vincing evidence of having read him carefully. Aquinas's thoughts on philosophical theology and on the God-problem cannot be gleaned from the...