alone,
so
that,
in
so
far
as
anything
exists
in
the
universe,
God
is
the
essence
of
it;
a
practical
pan-
theism,
in
spite
of
his
attempting
to
enforce
a
cre-
ative
activity
on
the
part
of
God.
The
influence
of
this
pantheistic
view
on
medieval
theology
was
a
limited
one;
Amalric
of
Bena
(q.v.),
with
his
proposition
that
God
was
all
things,
was
its
main
disciple.
In
accordance
with
its
fimdamental
character,
scholasticism
attempted
to
reduce
the
idea
of
God
into
the
categories
which
related
to
the
'laws
of
thought,
to
being
in
general,
and
to
the
8.
The
Scho-
world.
It
began
by
adapting
the
lastic
Phi-
Aristotelian
terms
to
its
own
puiv
losophers.
poses.
God,
or
absolute
being,
was
to
Aristotle
the
primum
mobile,
re-
garded
thus
from
the
standpoint
of
causation
and
not
of
mere
being,
and
also
a
thinking
subject.
The
ideas
and
prototypes
of
the
finite
are
accordingly
to
be
found
in
God,
who
is
the
final
Cause.
God,
in
Albertus
Magnus
and
Thomas
Aquinas,
is
not
the
essential
being
of
things,
but
he
is
their
esse
effective
d
exemplarUer,
their
primum
mavens,
and
their
causa
finodis.
Aristotelian,
again,
is
the
definition
of
God's
own
nature,
that
he
is,
as
a
thinking
sub-
ject,
actus
pwrus
—
pure,
absolute
energy,
without
the
distinction
found
in
finite
beings
between
poten-
tiality
and
actuality.
In
opposition
to
Thomas,
Dims
Scotus
emphasized
in
his
conception
of
God
the
primum
ens
and
primum
movens^
the
element
of
will
and
free
causation.
The
arbitrary
nature
of
the
will
of
God,
taught
by
him,
was
raised
by
Occam
to
the
most
important
element
of
his
teaching
about
God.
Upon
this
abstract
conception
of
the
will
of
God
as
arbitrary
and
unconditioned
depend
the
questions
(so
characteristic
of
scholasticism
from
Abelard
down)
as
to
whether
all
things
are
possible
to
God.
About
the
end
of
the
thirteenth
century,
by
the
side
of
the
logical
reasonings
of
scholasticism,
there
arose
the
mystical
theology
of
Eckhart,
which
attempted
to
bring
the
Absolute
near
to
the
hearts
of
men
as
the
object
of
an
immediate
intuition
de-
pendent
upon
complete
self-surrender.
The
trans-
cendental
Neoplatonic
conception
of
the
Absolute
is
here
pushed
to
its
extreme,
and
Dionysius
has
more
influence
than
Thomas
Aquinas.
The
view
of
God's
relation
to
the
world
is
almost
pantheistic,
imless
it
may
be
rather
called
acos-
9.
The
mistic,
regarding
the
finite
as
naught.
Mystics.
This
is
Eckhart's
teaching,
although
at
the
same
time
he
speaks
of
a
cresr
tion
of
the
world
and
of
a
Son
in
whom
God
ex-
presses
himself
and
creates.
This
God
is
regarded
as
goodness
and
love,
communicating
himself
in
a
way,
but
not
to
separate
and
independent
im-
ages
of
his
own
being;
rather,
he
possesses
and
loves
himself
in
all
things,
and
the
surrender
to
him
is
passivity
and
self-annihilation.
The
ruling
ideas
of
this
view
were
moderated
by
the
practical
Ger-
man
mystics
and
foimd
in
this
form
a
wide
currency.
On
the
other
hand,
pantheistic
heretics,
such
as
the
Brethren
of
the
Free
Spirit
combined
antinomian
principles
with
the
doctrine
that
God
was
all
things
and
that
the
Christian
united
with
God
was
per-
fect
as
God.
In
partial
contrast
to
the
speculative
theology
which
has
been
considered
above,
the
practi^
popular
view
of
the
Middle
Ages
tended
to
repre-
sent
God
as
a
strict
autocrat
and
judge,
and
to
multiply
intermediate
advocates
with
him,
of
whom
Mary
was
chief.
Luther
went
back
to
the
God
of
Scripture,
regarded
primarily
in
his
ethical
relation
to
man,
pronouncing
curses,
indeed,
against
the
impenitent,
but
really
aiming
at
man's
salvation.
As
the
love
of
God
has
an
ethical,
10.
The
personal
character,
so
it
requires
from
Reformers,
its
human
objects
not
self-annihila-
tion,
but
an
entrance
with
all
the
power
of
personality
into
conmnmion
with
this
love
and
enjoyment
of
the
filial
relation.
The
Christian,
though
free
from
bondage
to
the
world,
is
to
realize
that
it
was
made
by
God
to
serve
his
purposes.
Melanchthon
and
Calvin,
in
like
manner,
avoiding
scholastic
subtleties,
laid
stress
upon
these
practi-
cal
relations.
The
dogmatic
differences,
however,
between
the
Lutheran
and
Reformed
confessions
point
to
a
fundamental
difference
in
the
way
of
regarding
God.
The
former
emphasizes
his
loving
condescension
to
man's
weakness,
and
teaches
a
deification
of
humanity
in
the
person
of
Christ
and
a
union
of
the
divine
operations
and
presence
with
means
of
grace
having
a
created
and
symbolic
side,
which
the
latter,
with
its
insistence
upon
the
su-
preme
exaltation
of
God,
can
not
admit;
and
it
rejects
a
theory
of
an
eternal
decree
of
reprobation
against
a
part
of
humanity
which
the
latter
defends
by
appealing
to
God's
rights
over
sinners
and
his
absolute
sovereignty.
The
next
generation
of
dog-
matic
theologians
was
accustomed
to
define
God
as
essentia
spiriiualis
infinita,
and,
in
the
description
of
his
attributes,
to
pass
from
general
metaphysical
terms
to
his
ethical
attributes
and
those
relating
to
his
knowledge.
The
older
rationalistic
and
supra-
naturaUstic
theologians
showed
an
increasing
tend-
ency
to
return
for
their
definitions
and
expositions
to
the
Scriptures.
Nor
did
they
accomplish
much
in
the
way
of
solving
the
real
problems
or
investi-
gating
the
relation
between
the
content
of
reve-
lation
and
the
knowledge
or
conception
of
the
divine
to
be
found
elsewhere.
The
independent
metaphysical
systems
of
the
philosophers,
which
embrac^
God
and
the
world,
did
not
at
first
make
any
profound
impression
on
the
thought
of
theologians.
Spinoza's
pantheism
was
by
its
very
nature
excluded
from
consideration;
but
the
philosophy
of
Leibnitz
and
Wolflf,
with
its
conception
of
God
as
a
supremely
per-
il.
Leibnitz
feet,
personal
Being,
in
whom
all
pos-
and
Wolflf.
sible
realities
were
embraced
in
their
highest
form,
and
with
its
demonstra-
tion
of
God's
existence,
offered
itself
as
a
friend
to
Christian
doctrine,
and
was
widely
influential.
In
so
far,
however,
as
the
theologians
adopted
any
of
its
conclusions,
it
was
with
little
clearness
of
insight
or
independent
thought
as
to
the
relation
of
these
metaphysical
concepts
to
the
Christian
faith
or
as
to
their
own
validity.
A
new
epoch
in
German
philosophy,
with
which
theology
had
and
still
has
to
reckon,
came
in
with
Kant.
Confidence
in
the
argmnents
by
which
God's
existence
had
been
proved
and
defined
was
at
