Saturday, March 04, 2006

Q6 A4: Whether all things are good by the divine goodness?

No. Every thing is called good because of its own formal goodness which it possesses inasmuch as it has its own being.

That is, things are not called beings on account of the divine being, but on account of their own being; therefore, they are called good on account of their own existing goodness.

Of course, everything is also called good by reason of the similitude of the divine goodness belonging to it.

That is, the divine goodness is the first exemplary effective and final principle of all goodness.

Note that Aquinas treats this difficult topic in greater detail in his Exposition of the "On the Hebdomads" of Boethius.