ARTICLE I

This Question Treats the Book of Life. In the First Article We Ask: IS THE BOOK OF LIFE A CREATED THING?

Difficulties:

It seems that it is, for

1. Explaining that line in the Apocalypse (20:12), "and another book was opened, which was the book of life," the Gloss says: "The book of life is Christ, who will then appear in His power and give life to His own." Now, at the final judgment, Christ will appear in human form, which is not something uncreated. Consequently, the book of life does not mean anything uncreated.

2. Gregory says: "Our future judge Himself is called the book of life, because whoever sees Him will at once remember all he has done." Now, judgment has been given to Christ as man. This is clear from the words of John (5:27): "And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the son of man." Therefore, Christ as man is the book of life, and the same must be said as before.

3. A thing is called a book because it has received writing. But a thing is said to be receptive in so far as it contains material potency, which cannot exist in God. Therefore, nothing uncreated is called the book of life.

4. Since book means a kind of collection, it signifies distinction and difference. But, being most simple, an uncreated nature contains no diversity. Therefore, nothing in such a nature can be called a book.

5. In every book, the writing is something other than the book. Now, the writing in a book is made up of figures, and by means of these we know the things which are read in the book. However, the ideas by which God knows things do not differ from the divine essence. Consequently, His uncreated nature cannot be called a book.

6. But it was said that even though there is no real difference in the divine nature, there is nevertheless a conceptual difference.--On the contrary, a merely conceptual difference exists only in our mind. Consequently, if the difference which this book involves is only a conceptual difference, the book of life must exist only in our intellects, and hence will not be something uncreated.

7. The book of life seems to be God's knowledge of those who are to be saved. Moreover, the knowledge of the elect is contained in God's knowledge of vision. Now, since the soul of Christ sees in the Word all the things that God knows with His knowledge of vision, it seems that it also knows the number of the elect and all those who have been chosen. Therefore, the soul of Christ can be called the book of life; hence, the book of life means something created.

8. We read in Ecclesiasticus (24:32): "All these are the book of life . . ."; and the Gloss on this passage adds: "That is, the new and old testament." Now, the Old and New Testament are created. Therefore, the book of life means something created.

9. A book seems to get its name from the fact that something is written in it. Writing, however, involves some imperfection; hence, in its initial purity, our intellect is compared to "a page on which nothing has been written." But God's nature is far more pure and simple than our intellect. Hence, it cannot be called a book.

10. A book exists for someone to read. But God's nature cannot be said to be a book in the sense that He reads it. This is evident from Augustine's statement that its title, "Book of Life," does not mean that God has to read it in order to know something which He did not know previously. Similarly, it cannot be called a book in the sense that someone other than God reads it, because no one can read anything unless he finds some diversity of markings--for example, no one can read a blank piece of paper, because it is undifferentiated. Therefore, God's uncreated nature cannot be called a book.

11. From a book one does not receive knowledge of things as from their cause but as from a sign of them. Now, God does not receive His knowledge of things, as it were, from a sign, but, as it were, from a cause. Therefore, God's knowledge cannot be called the book of life.

12. Nothing can be merely a sign of itself. Now, a book is a sign of truth. Consequently, since God is truth itself, He Himself cannot be called a book.

13. A book and a teacher are principles of knowledge in different ways. Now, all wisdom is said to come from God as from a teacher. Therefore, it does not come from Him as from a book.

14. A thing is represented differently in a mirror and in a book. Now, Wisdom (7:26) calls God a mirror because all things are represented in Him. Consequently, He cannot and should not be called a book.

15. Even those books that are copied from the original are called books. But the minds of men and angels, in some sense, copy God's mind when they receive knowledge of things from it. Consequently, if the divine mind is called the book of life, created minds should be similarly called; and thus it is not always something uncreated that is called the book of life.

16. The book of life seems to imply a representation of life and an exercise of causality over it. Now, all this belongs to Christ as man, because in Him, as in a pattern, is represented all life, both that of grace and that of glory. For this reason it was said to Moses (Exodus 25:40): "Look and make it according to the pattern that was shewn thee in the mount." Moreover, Christ merited life for us. Therefore, Christ Himself, as man, can be called the book of life.

To the Contrary:

1'. Augustine says: "We should know that there is a divine force which causes each one to remember his deeds, good or bad. Indeed, this divine power is called a book." Now, a divine force is something uncreated. Therefore, something uncreated is also called the book of life.

2'. In the same work, Augustine says: "The book of life is God's foreknowledge, which cannot be mistaken." But His foreknowledge is something uncreated. Therefore, the book of life is also something uncreated.

REPLY:

Applied to God, book can be used only metaphorically; thus, it is in this sense that the representation of life is called the book of life. In this connection, it should be noted that life can be represented in two ways: first, as it is in itself, or, secondly, as it can be participated in by certain individuals. Furthermore, life taken in itself can be represented in two ways. This can be done, first, by means of instruction; and this kind of representation pertains to the sense of hearing, which, as said in The Senses and the Sensed, is the chief sense for learning. Taken in this meaning, therefore, the book of life signifies that which contains instructions on how one should live. Consequently, the Old and New Testaments are called the book of life. The second way of representing life in itself is by giving a model; and this kind of representation pertains to the sense of sight. Consequently, Christ Himself is called the book of life, because, by looking at Him as at a model, we can see how we must live in order to attain eternal life.

We are not speaking of the book of life in these senses, however, but only in the sense that the book of life is said to be the representation of those who are to attain eternal life, and whose names, according to a comparison drawn from human affairs, are said to be written down in this book.

For, in a state that is wisely ruled, anyone who becomes a citizen must do so according to the ordinances of its ruler. Hence, those who are to be admitted to citizenship are enrolled as being, as it were, participants in the state. By using this enrollment, the ruler of the state is guided in rejecting persons from and in admitting them to the fellowship of the citizens subject to him. Now, the citizens who are ruled most perfectly by divine providence form the society of the Church triumphant, which is also called the City of God in Scripture. Hence, the enrollment or representation of those who are to be admitted to that society is called the book of life. This is clear from Scripture's manner of speaking. For example, Luke (10:20) says: "Rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven," that is, in the book of life; Isaias (4:3): "Everyone . . . shall be called holy . . . that is written in life in Jerusalem"; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews (12:22-23) we read: "But you are come . . . to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, and to the church of the first-born who are written in the heavens." It is necessary, therefore, to carry out the metaphor--and say that from this enrollment the ruler of the society shall know those who are to be given life. The bestowal of life, of course, belongs to God alone. However, God is not guided by anything created, for He is a rule that is directed by nothing extrinsic to Himself. Consequently,

the book of life, in the sense in which we are now using it, means something uncreated.

Answers to Difficulties:

1-2. Our answer is clear from what we have said above.* For the Gloss and Gregory's statement concern the book of life in another sense, namely, as it means a model for living: any one who looks at it can tell whether or not he conforms to it.

3. When terms are applied to God, the general rule should be observed that in no respect can imperfection be contained in predicates applied to the divinity. Consequently, whatever implies matter, privation, or time must be removed. Now, that it receives markings from something extrinsic belongs to a book in so far as it is temporal and newly written. These notes are not included in the predicate when it is applied to God.

4. The very notion of book implies a difference existing between the things known by its means, because a book hands down the knowledge of many things. But that a book must have diversity to hand down knowledge of many things is a defect in the book. It would be much more perfect if it could teach by means of one thing all that it now explains by means of many things. Consequently, since God is most perfect, the book of life is such that it shows many things by means of that which is one in the highest degree.

5. That the letters written in a book differ from the pages on which they are written is due to a defect of material books. For, because books are composite things, that which has is not the same as that which is had. Consequently, in God these ideas differ from His essence, not really, but only conceptually.

6. Although the distinction between the writing and that in which it is written is merely conceptual, the representation, which completes the notion of a book, is not only in our mind but also in God. Hence, the book of life is really in God.

7. As indicated above,* the book of life directs God, who gives life, in His giving of life. Now, even though the soul of Christ knows all the elect, God is directed, not by Christ's human knowledge, but by His own uncreated knowledge, which is Himself. Hence, the knowledge possessed by the soul of Christ cannot be called the book of life in the sense in which we are speaking of it.

8. The reply is clear from what has been said.

9. Although there is no diversity but only the greatest purity in God, He is nonetheless compared to a book that has been written in, and not to the blank page to which our intellect has been compared. For our intelligence is compared to a blank page because it is in potency to all intelligible forms, and as yet has none of them actually. In God's intellect, however, all the forms of things exist in act, and in Him they are one. Consequently, in God the formal character of writing is compatible with His oneness.

10. God Himself reads the book of life, and others can read it in so far as they are allowed to do so. Augustine does not mean to deny that God reads the book of life; he denies only that He reads it in order to know what He previously did not know. Moreover, others can read the book of life, even though it is entirely simple, since it is possible for one and the same reality to be the intelligible character of many things.

11. One thing is a likeness of another in two ways. In the first way, it is the model for the other thing and thus its cause; second, it itself can be modeled upon the other, and thus be its effect and sign. Now, in the case of men, a book conforms to their knowledge, which, in turn, is caused by things. Consequently, they receive knowledge of things from a book, not as from a cause, but as from a sign. However, God's knowledge is the cause of things, since it contains the archetypes of all things. Hence, knowledge is received from the book of life as from a cause, and not as from as a sign.

12. The book of life is uncreated truth itself as well as a likeness of created truth, just as a created book is a sign of truth.

13. In God, exemplary and efficient causality come to the same thing. Consequently, from the fact that He is an exemplary cause He can be called a book, and from the fact that He is the efficient cause of wisdom He can be called a teacher.

14. The representation a mirror gives differs from that which a book gives, because it refers directly to things while that of a book refers to things through the medium of knowledge. For the letters contained in a book are only signs of words, and these, in turn, are signs of concepts, which are likenesses of things. A mirror, however, reflects the forms of things. Yet in God the species of things are reflected in both ways, because He knows things and He knows that He knows them. Consequently, in God both the notion of mirror and the notion of book can be verified.

15. The minds of the saints can also be called books. This is clear from the Apocalypse (20:12) "And the books were opened"--which Augustine explains as meaning the hearts of the just. However, the saints' minds cannot be called books of life in the sense in which we are taking this term. This is clear from what has been said.*

16. Although Christ as man is an archetype and, in some sense, the cause of life, as man He is not the cause of the life of glory through His authority nor an archetype directing God in His bestowal of life. Consequently, Christ as man cannot be called the book of life.