Creation is theophany—divine appearing. And theophany is the love of God. This article—published in The New Ressourcement, 3, no. 1 (2026): 316–40—addresses how and why the world is the theophanizing of God’s love, arguing that creation is simply God appearing in a different (creaturely) mode. Since transcendence does not imply separation between creator and creature—but, rather, implies participation—transcendence enables God’s immanence in creation. Divine transcendence is best expressed by the language of Love (rather than Being) as the marker for the God beyond being. To be sure, Love and Being are not mutually exclusive, even if the former precedes the latter ontologically. But by prioritizing the name of Love or Goodness, Christian Platonism acknowledges that the Being of God arises out of his Love. Such prioritizing is a confession that God is beyond being and intelligibility. It acknowledges that we never fully grasp the always “receding horizon” of Love, that the essence of God remains ever beyond us, as he generously stoops down to us in theophanic appearance.
I am really thankful for this article. I have learned a lot from it.
I wondered if you could clarify Aquinas in ST 1.13.11. You are suggesting he is doing a metaphysical move by naming God HE WHO IS and, therefore, he is expressing that being is the ultimate metaphysical principle instead of Goodness.
But I read Aquinas as doing epistemology when discussing the name of God. Isn’t he saying that the way we receive God is through his goodness since it is by definition relational. And therefore, there must be something “further in” about God that is harder to know since it is incomunicable—i.e. his being.
Or am I misunderstanding him here?
Thanks for posting this Dr. Boersma. I would be grateful to know of a discussion forum either for this paper or the topic. I am interested to know about the extent of an intersection with process philosophy (which I find scientifically compelling), and the possibility of preserving some form of univocity that preserves a special place for God, e.g., as being qua being. Apologies if these questions are out of place here.