Jonathan Edwards and the Theology of the Sixth Way
This, with Edwards, is established, that mind cannot conceive a state of perfect nothing. Something, somewhere, there must be; for if we say that there is absolutely nothing, we talk nonsense, inasmuch as we imply a disjunction where there is none. “Either being or absolute nothing is no disjunction...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
[1966]
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| In: |
Church history
Year: 1966, Volume: 35, Issue: 1, Pages: 60-75 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This, with Edwards, is established, that mind cannot conceive a state of perfect nothing. Something, somewhere, there must be; for if we say that there is absolutely nothing, we talk nonsense, inasmuch as we imply a disjunction where there is none. “Either being or absolute nothing is no disjunction, no more than whether a triangle is a triangle or not a triangle. There is no other way but only for there to be existence. There is no such thing as absolute nothing.” Some being, therefore, some place necessarily and eternally is. And if at some place then in all places, since it is no less meaningless to affirm that nothing is in some one place than it is to say that nothing is at all. “So that we see this necessary, eternal being must be infinite and omnipresent.” But if omnipresent then not solid, for solidity is nothing but resistance to other solidities, all of which we can with ease conceive as not existing, whereas this omnipresent being “is the very thing that we can never remove and conceive of its not being.” What is this being, then, that no amount of mental effort can deny? It is, says Edwards, space. |
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| ISSN: | 0009-6407 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Church history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3162672 |