766 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
The doctrinal teaching of Scotus Erigena can be reduced, as he himself states, to three heads. (1) God, the simple and at the same time the multiform cause of all things ; (2) Procession from God, the divine goodness showing itself in all that is, from general to particular ; (3) Return to God, the manifold going back into the one.
First Head. God, or Nature, which creates but is not created, a. The Being of God in itself considered. God is the essence of all things, alone truly is,1 and is the beginning, middle and end of all things.2 He is incomprehensible.3 While the pre dicates of essence, truth, goodness, wisdom, &c., can be, accord ing to the " affirmative" theology, applied to God, it can only be done metaphorically, because each such predicate has an opposite, while in God there is no opposition. Hence the "negative" theology correctly maintains they can not be.4 Neither can selfconsciousness be predicated of God.5 Although not even the angels can see the essence of God, yet his being (i. e. the Father) can be seen in the being of things ; his wisdom (i. e. the Son) in their orderly arrangement, and his life (i. e. the Holy Spirit) in their constant motion.6 God is therefore an essence in three substances. Scotus Erigena takes up the doctrine of John of Damascus concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit and applies it to the relation of the Son to the Father : " As the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, so is the Son born of the Father through the Holy Spirit." 7 In the old patristic fashion he compares the Three Persons to light, heat and radiance united in the flame. But he understood under
1 " Tpse namque omnium essentia est, qui soJus vere est." Migne, Ibid. I. 3 (col. 443). 2 "Est igitur principium, medium et finis." I. 11 (col. 451).
3 "Dem per seipsum incomprehensibilis est" I. 10 (col. 451).
* I. 14 (col. 459).
6 II. 28 (col. 593). For a discussion of this point see Christlieb, J. 8 E., pp. 168-176.
6 De div. Nat, 1. 13 (col. 455). Ueberweg, I c., p. 361.
' De div. Nat. II. 33 (col. 612).
I 176. JOHANNES SCOTUS ERIGENA. 7G7
u persons " no real beings, only names of the aspeets and rela tions under which God's being comes out. God realizes himself in creation, and in every part of it, yet he does not thereby yield the simplicity of his essence. He is still removed from all, subsists outside of and above the world, which has no inde pendent existence apart from God, but is simply his manifes tation. He is both the substance and the accidents of all that exists. "God therefore is all and all is God."1 But God reveals himself to the creature. He appeared first to the pious in visions, but this was only occasional.2 He then appeared constantly in the form of the different virtues.3 The intellect is itself a thcophany ; and so is the whole world, visible and invisible.4
2. The Procession from God or Nature, a. Nature which creates and is created, or the primordial ideas of the world and their unity in the Logos. God is the nature and essence of the world. Creation is the effect of the divine nature, which as cause eternally produces its effects, indeed is itself in the primordial ideas the first forms and grounds of things.5 As the pure Being of God cannot immediately manifest itself in the finite, it is necessary that God should create the prototypes in which he can appear. In creation God passes through these prototypes or primordial causes into the world of visible crea tures. So the Triune God enters the finite, not only in the Incarnation, but in all created existences. Our life is God's life in us. As remarked above, we know God because in us he re veals himself. These prototypes have only subjective existence, except as they find their unity in the Logos.6 Under the
1 III. 10 (col. 650). This is the remark of the "disciple," but the " master" does not contradict it. Cf. III. 17, V. 30 ; I. 13.
2 I. 7, 8 (cob. 445-448).
3 " Igitur omnix theophania, id est omnis virtus, et in hoc vita . . . et in futura vita,1' I. 9 (col. 449).
4 I. 7, 8, 13 (cols. 445-448. 454-459). 6 III. 23 (col. 689).
« II. 15, 22 (cols. 545-548, 562-566, especially col. 566).