Focusing on the "Summa Theologiae", the work containing Thomas Aquinas' systematic and complete exposition of the Christian doctrine of God, this book presents an exploration of Aquinas' conception of God. It is aimed at those interested in Aquinas, historical theology, metaphysics, and metaphysical discourse on God in the Christian tradition. Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii Introduction: Thinking Systematically about God from Within the Christian Tradition 1(8) 1 A Masterpiece of Theology Aims, Method and Composition of the Summa theologiae 9(1) Introduction 9(2) The Structure of the Summa theologiae 11(7) Sacred Doctrine and Revelation 18(5) The Scientia of Sacred Doctrine 23(5) The 'Catholic Truth' and Philosophy 28(9) 2 The First Thing to Know: Does God Exist? On the Five Ways 37(28) Interpreting the Five Ways 37(3) The Meaning of the Question An Sit 40(2) The Middle Term of the Demonstration that God Exists 42(5) The Five Ways as Examples of the Manuductio by Reason 47(1) The First Argument on the Basis of Motion 48(3) The Transition from Physics to Metaphysics 51(4) The Analysis of the Concept of Motion 55(10) 3 The Heart of the Matter: What God Is (Not) 65(30) Introduction: the Question of God 65(2) The Threefold Division of the Treatment of God 67(5) Knowing what God is Not: Negative Theology? 72(5) The Dialectical Relationship between Simplicity and Perfection 77(8) God and Being 85(10) 4 Divine Names On Human Discourse about God 95(28) Introduction: God and Language 95(3) The Semantic Triangle of Reality, Knowledge and Language (resratio?nomen) 98(4) Affirmative and Absolute Names (Art.2) 102(2) Metaphorical and Proper Names (Art.3) 104(3) Are All Names Synonymous? 107(2) The Analogy of the Divine Names 109(6) Divine Names and the Analogy of Being 115(8) 5 God's Proper Action On the Causality of Creation 123(24) Introduction: Metaphysics of Creation 123(2) The Triadic Structure of the Causality of Creation 125(3) The Argument for Creation 128(4) Towards the Metaphysical Consideration of Being 132(7) Creation as Participation 139(8) 6 A God of Grace On Human Freedom and Divine Grace 147(24) Introduction 147(3) Some Aspects of the Relationship between Nature and Grace 150(5) The Twofold Happiness 155(5) Grace as Participation in the Divine Nature 160(11) Epilogue: Aquinas' God and the Language of Participation 171(10) Select Bibliography 181(8) Index 189