Nova et Vetera has accepted my article “Five Ways, One Journey: Do Aquinas’ Five Ways Attempt to Prove the God of Classical Theism?” In the article I present a new reading of Aquinas’ Five Ways by attending carefully to each article in questions 2 & 3 of the Summa. The first two Ways only demonstrate that a god exists, whereas the Third, Fourth, and Fifth show what sort of thing a god is. The first three Ways constitute one extended, natural philosophical cosmological argument, even though each serves as a successful proof of a god’s existence all on its own as well. The conclusion of each Way is subsumed by the next Way, providing assurance that each concludes to the same being. Aquinas utilizes a weak, nominal definition of “god” as the criterion for a successful proof, namely “some being distinct from and superior to ordinary beings that governs as a first cause some realm in the universe.” He does not intend to prove the existence of the God of classical theism in his Five Ways nor does he intend to prove the existence of God as the self-subsistent act of existence, nor as pure act. He does not even intend to prove the existence of a single individual god. But the Fourth Way shows that only one kind of thing is a god; q. 3, a. 3 shows that there is not more than one individual god in a species; and q. 3, a. 5 shows that there is not more than one species of god. The God of classical theism is proved by the entirety of questions 2 & 3 taken together.
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