God is his own last end: Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Aquinas on creation

Abstract

This article attempts to fill a lacuna in the literature on God's last end in creation by giving focused attention to comparing Jonathan Edwards and Aquinas, arguing that both agree that God created the world to diffuse the divine nature in the world of created things as an expression of divine superabundant self-sufficiency. They disagree only on whether creation is necessary. Yet the Edwardsian position here is compatible with a strong Thomistic affirmation of divine aseity. The article outlines Edwards' and Aquinas's views of the end for which God created the world in light of God's overall metaphysics. It argues that they are in substantive agreement and examines how significant their difference on creational necessity is to their picture of creation as a whole.