God: His Knowability, Essence, and Attributes

by Arthur Preuss; Joseph Pohle

Publisher:

B. Herder

, 1911

Overview

One of theology’s central tasks lies in answering the question: “Who is God, and how can human beings know God?”

This volume introduces readers to the doctrine of God and the process of discerning God’s nature and essence. Joseph Pohle searches Scripture and tradition to discern the nature and being of God, and our ability to know God. He describes God’s attributes—including absoluteness, immutability, eternality, and omnipresence—along with his unity and simplicity. God: His Knowability, Essence, and Attributes also contains chapters on God’s will possibility for individuals to discern it.

Key Features

• Detailed footnotes and bibliographical material
• Contains a detailed topical index

Contents

Top Highlights

“According to the pseudo-Dionysian definition God’s sanctity is in the first place” (Page 253)

“It cannot be denied, however, that theology in its various branches, not excepting dogma, owes a wholesome impulse to modern philosophy, in so far as modern philosophy, especially since Kant (d. 1804), sharpened the critical spirit in method and argumentation, deepened the treatment of many dogmatic problems, and made ‘theoretical doubt’ the starting-point of every truly scientific inquiry. Since the Protestant Reformation threw doubt upon, nay even denied the principal dogmas of the Church, dogmatic theology has been, and still is compelled to lay stress upon demonstration from positive sources, especially from Holy Writ.” (Page 11)

“We define special dogmatics, or dogmatic theology proper, after the example of Scheeben,¹¹ as ‘the scientific exposition of the entire domain of theoretical knowledge, which can be obtained from divine Revelation, of God Himself and His activity, based upon the dogmas of the Church.’” (Page 8)

“More than any other study that of theology should be accompanied by pious meditation and humble prayer” (Page 6)

“Here below man can know God only by analogy; hence we are constrained to apply to Him the three scientific questions: An sit, Quid sit, and Qualis sit, that is to say: Does He exist? What is His Essence? and What are His qualities or attributes?” (Page 15)

Product Details

• Title: God: His Knowability, Essence, and Attributes
• Author: Joseph Pohle
• Publisher: B. Herder
• Publication Date: 1911
• Pages: 479

About Joseph Pohle

Joseph Pohle (1852–1922) studied in Trier, Rome, and was ordained as a priest in 1878. He served as a professor in Baar, Switzerland from 1881 to 1883, as professor at St. Joseph’s College in Leeds, England from 1883 to 1886, and as professor of philosophy in Fulda from 1886 to 1889. In 1889, he moved to America to teach at the newly-founded Catholic University. Pohle returned to Europe in 1894, teaching at Münster and then Breslau, where he served as professor of dogma, and wrote his Dogmatic Theology. He was also a frequent contributor to the Catholic Encyclopedia.