Erich Przywara

Analogia Entis by Erich Przywara

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Przywara, Erich, 1889-1972. [Analogia entis. English] Analogia entis: metaphysics: original structure and universal rhythm / Erich Przywara; translated by John R. Betz and David Bentley Hart. ​pages ​cm. “First published 1962 in German under the title Analogia Entis I. Metaphysik. Ur-Struktur und All-Rhythmus by Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8028-6859-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. God (Christianity)—Knowableness. 2. Analogy (Religion) I. Title.

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Przywara’s next step is to argue that this dynamic tension inherent in epistemology is ultimately rooted in a dynamic ontological tension between essence and existence, which is ontologically prior to any methodological considerations. In other words, for Przywara, the epistemological instability that manifests itself in the ineluctable back-and-forth between a meta-ontics and a meta-noetics is ultimately a reflection, at the level of method, of the inherent instability of creaturely being as such. For just as epistemology is without any firm footing, so too is the creature’s fundamental being, since unlike God, whose essence is to exist, the essence of the creature is precisely not identical to its existence. Rather, essence and existence are related in the creature in such a way that the essence of the creature is never fully given, i.e., never identical or reducible to its existence, but is always on the horizon of its existence as something to be attained. This is more or less what Przywara means by his gnomic and idiosyncratic formula “essence in-and-beyond existence,” understood as the basic formula of a creaturely metaphysics.167 To be sure, the essence of the creature informs the fact of the creature’s existence, making it what it is; therein lies the “in” of “essence in-and-beyond existence.” Radically speaking, however, the creature is never fully there, since its essence is at the same time always that to which it is underway.168 Indeed, to draw out the metaphysical implications of Scripture, we cannot even be said to be what we are, for “what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 John 3:2). …

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Nor, for Przywara, can this single ordering of nature to grace be said to compromise the novelty of revelation and grace in Christ, as Barth feared. For, as he clearly states already in his philosophy of religion from 1926, “the incarnation of God is nothing that could in any way be calculated”; equally, however, for reasons we have seen and because there is ultimately only one order of salvation within which creation and redemption take place and unfold, it cannot be something contradictory.302 Accordingly, summing up his analogical approach as the only way to avoid either conflating or radically sundering the orders of nature and grace, the natural and the supernatural, he writes: “In God nature and the supernatural are inseparably united according to their objective essence in that the ‘gift of participation’ [Teilgeben] in the supernatural is simply the unanticipated and unmerited fulfillment of that analogous ‘gift of participation’ that is the essence of nature: the ‘participation in the divine nature’ [should be understood] as the blessed crowning of ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’”303

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The second formal “primal Christian term,” “mysterion,” is rooted entirely in the Pauline letters—so much so that today (following Adolf Deissmann’s Mystik des Apostels Paulus) both the “theology of the mysteries” within Catholicism and the liturgical-sacramental movement within Protestantism use the word “mysterium” to designate a new “Paulinism,” as opposed to a “Pauline kerygmatics.” According to its literal sense, “mysterion” indicates a “τηρεῖν” within “μυ,” which is to say, a “keeping” of something within an “enclosure.” As a group of related words indicates, this sense of “keeping within an enclosure” has, so to speak, a “telluric” and a “psychic-spiritual” side. The telluric side comprises such words as “μύλλω” (for “sexual intercourse”),20 “μυσάρχη” (for “maid”), “μύλος” (for “mill”), “μύζω” (for “suck in”), and “μυγμός” (for “moan”), etc. The psychic-spiritual side, on the other hand, comprises the words “μύσω” (for “initiating someone into a doctrine”) and, corresponding to this, “μῦθος” (understood as the “word” in which the mystery of being, its “μυ” in the sense of what is “enclosed,” is so to speak “secretly whispered” into the listening ear of the “μύστης”) and, corresponding to this, “μυστήριον” (understood as that which is “safeguarded in the preserve of an enclosed existence”).21 This bifurcation between a telluric and a psychic-spiritual “μυ” affords us, of itself, an insight into the inner duality of the historical mysteries. The telluric side points to those primordial mysteries brought to light by the great ethnologist Winthuis:22 the cultic celebration of the complete integration of the sexes as the presence and representation of the divine, wherein male and female are identical. This is the mystery of the “ἱερὸς γάμος,” the holy nuptials, which stands at the center of the Babylonian mysteries. The psychic-spiritual side, on the other hand, points to the correlated mysteries of Eleusis and Dionysus specific to Greek antiquity, which celebrate a metaphysico-religious “resurrection in death” (as the great classical philologist Walter F. Otto has shown in Die Gestalt und das Sein): in the symbol of ears of corn suddenly shooting up out of the underworld, in the Eleusinian mysteries, and in the symbol of the grapevine suddenly shooting up out of the inebriation of the dismembered Dionysus. The telluric-spiritual duality of “μυ” (as we have seen from its etymology) thus constitutes a “fruitful βάθος,” pointing to an “essence of mysterium.” In the words of Otto, a mysterium is “a repetition of a primordial divine event” in the “cult,” in which “the human being is raised up to the divine and … interacts in fellowship with it,”23 thus constituting, to employ the vocabulary of ancient Christianity, the “memoria et praesentia” of a divine action in a “divine nuptials” (as this is objectively prefigured in the telluric “μυ,” in however earthy a way, and as it is foretokened—as “resurrection in death”—in the psychic-spiritual “μυ”).

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The correlate of analogy in metaphysics is the analogy in religion: as formulated by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) in the second chapter of its decrees. Whereas the Aristotelian analogy posits the “ἄλλο πρὸς ἄλλο,” the proportion between two X’s, as the form of every metaphysics, the Lateran analogy, as the form of any religion, posits a “maior dissimilitudo,” an “ever greater dissimilarity,” arising out of every “tanta similitudo,” every “similarity, however great,” for every conceivable “interval between God and creature.”42 Just as, in the case of the Aristotelian metaphysical analogy, all commonality in “genus, species, and number” is merely the horizon of the final dawn of the “ἄλλο πρὸς ἄλλο”—of, that is, the “wholly other” as what is ultimate in all “similarities”—so too, in the case of the Lateran religious analogy, the “wholly other” of an “ever greater dissimilarity” holds true in the midst of “every similarity, however great” between “Creator and creature” as such. What is decisive for the Lateran religious analogy is that it is defined precisely with regard to the most extreme case of “similarity”—indeed, almost “identity” or at least “unity”—between Creator and creature: with regard, that is, to the unity between the unity of the Three Divine Persons and the unity of the Three Divine Persons with the human being who “participates in the divine nature.” At issue is the most extreme possible reading of the words of Christ’s high-priestly prayer: “that they may be one as We are one”—“… that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they be one in Us!” (John 17:11, 21f.). For the council’s definition is concerned explicitly with this word of revelation: in order to clarify the “unity, however great (proper to the greatest ‘similarity’),” which is expressed in this revealed word, and in order to purify it of all dreams of identity (as the council encountered in Abbot Joachim of Fiore’s vision of the “three kingdoms” with the Father, Son, and Spirit as their respective forms), it asserted the “ever greater dissimilarity” between a “unity of identity in nature” (identitatis unitas in natura: in the unity of the Divine Persons) and a “unity of love in grace” (unio caritatis in gratia: in the unity of the Divine Persons with regard to and in “those who believe”). This most extreme case of similarity and unity “between Creator and creature” is taken up by the council in order, with respect to it, to define a “general law” for the “interval between Creator and creature”: the law, namely, that “between Creator and creature no similarity can be noted, however great, without being compelled to observe a greater dissimilarity between them.” This “cannot” and this “compelled”—understood as an essentially corresponding “quia,” which is to say, a “because” grounded in the nature of the Creator and the nature of creatures as such—are defined by the council in reference to the most extreme positive instance in the economy of salvation of the relation between a “unity in God” and a “unity of God in the unity of believers among themselves.” In this sense, an “ever greater dissimilarity within a similarity, however great” is the “essence” of the “being” of and between “Creator and creature”: in that even and precisely here—within the highest instance of a supernatural “unity between Creator and creature”—this dissimilarity is not only preserved as “natural being,” but is declared precisely as (according to the council’s decree) the “ultimate aspect” of this supernatural “unity” as well. The “analogy of ever greater dissimilarity” is the essence of the being of and between “Creator and creature” as such. This “being”—by which we mean nothing other than “Creator and creature” as such—is an “analogy of ever greater dissimilarity within every similarity, however great.” It is the “analogia entis,” because “being qua being” (ὂν ᾗ ὄν, as Aristotle says) is this “analogy.” There is no other “being qua being” than the “analogy” of “ever greater dissimilarity within every similarity, however great.” If this, and this alone, is the objective essence of the relation between “Creator and creature”—that is, religion in the sense of “religare” (a continual “binding back” of the creature to the Creator)—then even if one takes religion in the senses of “relegere” and “religere”—that is, as a continual conscious “reading oneself back”43 and a continual voluntary living out of the “choice to return”44—the Lateran “analogy” alone can be said to constitute religion’s formal law. For conscious and voluntarily lived-out religion is neither a “free phenomenon of value” (as in the Baden philosophy of value, from Rickert to Hessen), nor an “anthropological type” (as it is for the tradition running from Dilthey to Spranger), but rather a “consciousness of being,” the conscious and voluntarily lived-out “being” of religion as the being of the “interval between Creator and creature,” which is none other than the “analogy of ever greater dissimilarity within every similarity, however great.” In precisely this sense, “analogy”—as the essence of objective religion—is the formal law of “religious experience” between the living God and the living human being. That is to say, with absolute rigor: there is no “revelation” (understood as a “religious experience coming from God”) and no “mysticism” (understood as a “religious experience arising in man”) in which the experience of the “ever greater dissimilarity” within “every similarity, however great” (in “likeness” and “image” and “word,” etc.), would not be what is ultimate and highest. For this reason it holds true that God can be “seen, heard, beheld, and touched” solely in and as the “incarnate Christ,” who is “totus homo” as “totus Deus”: a man wholly circumscribed in his humanity, in whose humanity there is nothing visible, audible, scrutable, or tangible that would immediately suggest divinity, but who is simply “wholly man,” and as such is “wholly God.” For this reason it holds true, furthermore, that this Christ alone, as “wholly man, wholly God” throughout the entire span of his life—his conception, birth, life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, session at the right hand of the Father, and coming again at the end of the world—is and remains the sole and exclusive “revelation” and “intuition” of God, and that he is such solely and exclusively as “one Christ, head and body (of the church).” Thus every revelation and intuition of God originates solely with him (in the “type” of the Old Covenant) and with him completely closes (in his “apostles”); and thus all so-called “private revelations” are strictly classified as private personal “experience,” which (as John of the Cross and many others emphasize), inasmuch as it involves a new “seeing, hearing, viewing, and touching” of God (even of God in Christ), is rightly deemed “suspicious” so long as the intoxication of some “similarity, however great” (that of “vision, audition, etc.”), is not thoroughly sobered by a “dark faith (obscuritas fidei),” leading to the “ever greater dissimilarity” (of all “images, words, etc.” with regard to the “God, who dwells in inaccessible light,” as St. Paul himself stresses towards the end of his life). For this reason one may speak of authentic “religious experience” only insofar as what is ultimate in this experience is the distance of “ever greater dissimilarity”—and insofar as it thus bears within itself the “form of Christ,” the “form of the wholly human” that reveals the wholly divine only as the wholly human, and, what is more (as the “Adoro Te” tells us), not only in the “hiddenness of his divinity in the cross” but in the “hiddenness even of his humanity” beneath the wholly sensible signs of the sacrament, such that (according to Thomas) the only “appearance of Christ” is the “second coming.” Consequently, in keeping with this complete formal law of religion subjectively lived out, all three practical forms of “religious experience” are essentially situated within the “analogy of ever greater dissimilarity within every similarity, however great.” Every “mysterium” of the liturgy is a genuine form of religious experience to the extent that in it all “proximity to the holy” flows into the ever greater distance of the “service of adoration.” Every “sacrifice” and every ascetic “discipline” is a genuine form of religious experience to the extent that in it the “however great” of a self-overcoming will flows into the “ever greater” of a complete “surrender to the free decree of God’s most holy will.” Every life of prayer (including mysticism and precisely as leading to mysticism) is a genuine form of religious experience to the extent that all proximity, even the experience of “love,” becomes sober by passing into an “ever greater” reverence and an “ever greater” distance: such that every “holy intoxication and dream”—even that of the “spiritual senses”—and all “mystical certainties and mandates and missions” are increasingly darkened and dissipated in the “holy chill” of an eyeless, earless, senseless “Thy will be done”—of, that is, an “ever greater dissimilarity” with respect to all “intuition.”45 This analogy of “ever greater dissimilarity” is the final word for the two basic forms of religion as such: for an Augustinian religion of “transcending immanence” and a Thomistic religion of “indwelling transcendence.”

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Use the text above and replace the Przywara texts quoted below with the right text from above. Here’s the text to do that to:

Below is the text rewritten to incorporate the term “plurivocal” and to deepen the synthesis with a quote from Erich Przywara. In this revised version, key elements of the Catholic–SSGO synthesis are maintained and enriched by Przywara’s insight. For example, Przywara reminds us that “…das Wesen der Selbstoffenbarung ist die unendliche Fülle, in der Gott sich in unermesslicher Weise selbst gibt” (Przywara, Analogia Entis, 1996, 203). This underscores the idea that divine self‑givenness is not a static, hierarchical overflow but a dynamic, relational, and multi‑layered (plurivocal) reality.

SSGO and the Contemporary Chain of Being: A Plurivocal Model of Reality

What’s happening here in principle is not simply a chain‑of‑being model, nor is it a strict univocal model, but rather a plurivocal account of reality harmonized with deeply informed Catholicism and SSGO.

Plurivocal Reality: Beyond a Mere Chain of Being

The classical chain‑of‑being model presents a structured, hierarchical participation in divine being–everything is arranged in descending order from God to angels, to humans, to animals, and so on. While this view remains partially true in our synthesis, it doesn’t capture the self‑giving, relational nature that SSGO emphasizes. A strict chain‑of‑being model suggests a linear procession, whereas what emerges here is more plurivocal–meaning that reality is structured in multiple, interdependent dimensions of self‑givenness rather than as a single, downward hierarchy.

Rather than reality being a single ladder of participation, it is a multiplicity of interwoven, self‑given layers that all ultimately relate back to God’s self‑standing givenness. Creation is not merely an emanation from God; it is a dynamic reality reflecting participation in a relational, self‑given act at every level. Instead of a unified descending hierarchy, reality exhibits a plurivocal structure–multiple layers of participation that are ordered not just in terms of greater or lesser being, but in diverse ways that reflect God’s self‑givenness differently across levels.

Not Univocal: Reality as Analogical and Participatory

A univocal model of reality would imply that all existence operates under one category, as if everything exists in the same way and differs only in degree. However, Catholic theology has long maintained an analogical account of being: God’s existence and creaturely existence are not identical but exist in different modes. Divine existence is necessary, self‑sufficient, and infinite, while created existence is contingent, finite, and dependent.

SSGO deepens this analogical structure by making relationality the governing principle. Rather than simply placing God at the top of a hierarchy with creatures below, SSGO suggests that the nature of existence itself is participation in God’s relational self‑givenness. Each layer of existence reflects God’s self‑gift in a unique and irreducible way:

• Divine Existence (God’s Being): Self‑sufficient, purely actual, characterized by self‑standing relationality.
• Created Existence (Angels, Humans, Material Reality): A participatory share in being, expressed in diverse modes–spiritual, rational, or material.
• Pre‑Material Layers (Quantum Reality, Information Substrate, etc.): These emerge not as lower rungs of a hierarchy but as distinct modalities of relational being.

Thus, the model is not univocal because it does not treat all existence as the same, and it is not a strict chain‑of‑being because it presents reality as multilayered, relationally self‑given, and plurivocal.

Theological Implications: A Plurivocal Catholic-Synthesized Model

This plurivocal model of reality has profound implications for Catholic thought:

1. Divine Simplicity and the Trinity Are Fully Integrated

• God is not merely the “highest being” but is being‑as‑self‑givenness.
• The Trinity is not an “add‑on” to divine simplicity but is the very relational mode in which God’s fully actualized self‑giving existence is revealed. As Erich Przywara observes, “…das Wesen der Selbstoffenbarung ist die unendliche Fülle, in der Gott sich in unermesslicher Weise selbst gibt” (Przywara, Analogia Entis, 1996, 203). This dynamic view reinforces that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct relational modes of the one simple, self‑giving God.

1. Creation Is Not Just Hierarchical But Participatory

• Creation does not simply “descend” from God; it is the manifestation of relational self‑givenness at every level.
• Rather than a single, linear hierarchy, reality comprises multiple interwoven layers of participation in God’s self‑gift, echoing Aquinas’s teaching that “all things participate in the goodness of God” (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 3, a. 1).

1. Time Is Emergent, Not Fundamental

• Time is not a primary constituent of reality but an emergent modality arising from the relational ordering of change in creation.
• Although created beings experience time, they fundamentally exist in relation to the eternal, timeless God–a truth reminiscent of St. Augustine’s reflection that “The world was made, not in time, but with time.”

1. Eschatology as Full Participation in Divine Self‑Givenness

• Heaven is not merely “a higher place” but the consummation of full participation in the infinite relationality of God.
• The beatific vision is not static observation but the full reception of divine self‑gift, uniting the soul in the dynamic, self‑communicating life of the Trinity (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 1024).

Conclusion

This synthesis reconfigures the traditional chain‑of‑being framework into a plurivocal model of reality–one that recognizes multiple, interwoven layers of relational self‑givenness. It is not univocal because it respects the analogical differences between the necessary, infinite God and the contingent, finite creatures; rather, reality is plurivocal: composed of multiple layers and modes of relational participation, all cohering in a single, self‑giving divine source.

Here, deeply informed Catholicism and SSGO harmonize: the rich, historic doctrinal structure provides the foundation, while SSGO offers a relational metaphysics that unifies our understanding of divine simplicity, the Trinity, creation, time, and eschatology into one cohesive vision of being as relational self‑givenness. This holistic vision invites us to see all reality as a gift from, through, and ultimately returning to the self‑giving love of the Triune God.

Note: For further reading on Erich Przywara’s thought, see his work Analogia Entis. Metaphysik. Ur-Struktur und All-Rhythmus (3rd ed., Freiburg: Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, 1996). While online full-text links may vary by publisher, you can access bibliographic details through library databases or consult platforms such as WorldCat or Google Scholar for additional information.

Theological Quotations to supplement these ideas…

1. “Between creator and creature no similarity can be so great that a greater dissimilarity cannot be seen between them.” — Fourth Lateran Council (1215)

Source: Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Constitution on the Catholic Faith

(This formulation appears in scholarly presentations of the council’s teaching–even though official texts are in Latin, accepted English renderings match this wording.)

Immediate Context in Lateran IV

This axiom comes from the Fourth Lateran Council’s Constitution on the Catholic Faith (1215), in a section addressing Trinitarian doctrine and heresies . The council was refuting the teachings of Abbot Joachim of Fiore, who had argued that the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was merely a collective unity (like many believers being “one” people) rather than one essence . In affirming God’s absolute oneness of nature, Lateran IV taught that when Scripture says the faithful “are one” as the Father and Son are one, it is an analogous unity, not a literal identity of nature . The council therefore stated “inter creatorem et creaturam… maior dissimilitudo” — even the closest analogy between God and creation falls infinitely short of full likeness . This safeguarded the transcendence of God: God’s being remains incomprehensible and ineffable, beyond every created comparison . Anyone who distorted this balance (as Joachim did) was deemed heretical . Thus, in context, the council insists that although creation bears a real resemblance to its Creator, God’s mystery always exceeds what our concepts convey.

Broader Theological Implications (Analogy & Transcendence)

Lateran IV’s principle became fundamental to Catholic metaphysics and the theology of analogy. It ensures that divine transcendence is honored even when we use human language for God. Catholic theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas built on this, teaching that we can speak truthfully about God by analogy — our terms for goodness, wisdom, etc., reflect God as their source, but in an eminently different mode . As Aquinas explains, effects resemble their cause, yet God as first cause infinitely surpasses His effects . In his Summa, Aquinas cites that “since God transcends all his effects, whatever we know of God remains ever more dissimilar than similar” . The Church Fathers intuited this as well. Pseudo-Dionysius, for example, taught that the supreme Cause is “similar to nothing because it exceeds all”, and every affirmation about God must be negated by a greater negation due to God’s surpassing otherness . Lateran IV’s dictum thus canonized this apophatic insight. At the same time, it allows for analogy: we truly know God by likeness, yet always acknowledge the likeness is inadequate. Modern Catholic teaching reiterates this balance. The Catechism, echoing Lateran IV, warns that however much creation reflects God, “human words always fall short of the infinite God” (cf. CCC 42) — between Creator and creature lies an “ever greater” difference . In sum, this principle guards against reducing God to our concepts (avoiding idolatrous univocity) while affirming that created goodness genuinely mirrors God’s goodness in an analogical way . It upholds the mystery of God’s transcendence even as we confess that creation truly, though dimly, images its Creator .

2. “God is one but not solitary.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, ¶254

Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church

(This brief statement is widely cited from the Catechism in discussions of divine unity.)

Immediate Context in the Catechism’s Trinity Teaching

This phrase appears in the Catechism (§254) during its summary of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity . The Catechism first stresses that “The Trinity is One” (one God in three persons) and each divine person is fully God . It then immediately adds “God is one but not solitary” , a quote drawn from an ancient profession of faith (Fides Damasi, DS 71) . In context, this means that the one God is not a solitary being devoid of relationship — within the one divine essence there exist Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in an eternal communion. The Catechism goes on to explain that “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit” are not just names or roles, but really distinct persons in relation to each other . “He is not the Father who is the Son…” it notes, preserving the personal distinctions . Thus “God is one but not solitary” functions as a concise rejection of two opposite errors: It rejects tritheism (there are not three Gods, only one God) and modalism or a stark monad (God’s oneness is not a single-person loneliness). The one divine nature is a unity of three Persons, not one person alone. This safeguarded what Fourth Lateran had termed the “unity of nature, distinction of persons” in God . Historically, Church Fathers taught the same: St. Basil insisted that while we adore one God in essence, we also acknowledge the Son and Spirit, so the one God is not a single person in isolation (contra Sabellius). In sum, the Catechism uses “God is one but not solitary” to underline that Christian monotheism includes internal relationality: the Father, Son, and Spirit exist in an eternal relationship with one another, within the one Godhead.

Divine Simplicity and Relationality

Importantly, this phrase upholds both divine simplicity and God’s triune relational life. Divine simplicity means God’s being is not composed of parts — God is utterly one and indivisible. Calling God “one” affirms this unity of substance. Yet saying God is “not solitary” reveals that this one simple essence is alive with relations: the Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds . These relations of origin distinguish the persons without dividing the divine essence (each person is the simple divine essence) . Thus, God remains metaphysically simple even while being a communion of Persons. As the Catechism explains, the personal distinction “resides solely in the relationships” of Father, Son, and Spirit, and “everything (in God) is one where there is no opposition of relationship” (quoting St. Augustine) . The doctrine “God is one but not solitary” captures this paradox: the Trinity is one God, not three, but within God there is eternal communication of love between distinct Persons, not an isolated deity.

This truth also highlights God’s essential relationality. From all eternity the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit co-exist in mutual love — God is never “alone” in a creaturely sense. As Pope Benedict XVI taught, “God is not solitude, but perfect communion” . The Father eternally pours out the divine being in begetting the Son, the Son perfectly responds, and the Holy Spirit is the bond of their love . Love is therefore intrinsic to God’s being. Divine simplicity is not static or barren; it is the unity of a triune life of love. The early Fathers often hinted at this mystery: for example, St. Augustine noted that God is love (1 Jn 4:8), and in God are the lover, the beloved, and love itself — an image of Trinity in unity . In short, “God is one but not solitary” tells us that the one true God exists as Trinity, which means God’s very oneness is relational. This guards the faith from imagining God as a solitary despot or an impersonal force. Instead, the one God in God’s very self is an eternal relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit — unity in Trinity. This relational unity is the source of why we say along with the First Letter of John that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), since in God “Father, Son, and Spirit love each other eternally” and are one in that infinite love.

3. “God is love.” — 1 John 4:8

Immediate Biblical Context (1 John 4)

In 1 John 4:7–12, the Apostle John is exhorting the Christian community to love one another, grounding this command in the very nature of God. In verse 8 he writes, “He who does not love does not know God; for God is love” . The immediate context is a discourse on charity: John explains that love comes from God, and God’s love was manifested by sending His only Son into the world so we might live through Him (1 Jn 4:9) . Thus “God is love” is demonstrated by the Incarnation and sacrifice of Christ (1 Jn 4:10). In this passage, John is not offering a definition in abstract, but showing that all true love has its source in God’s very being. He emphasizes that if we truly know God, we will practice love, because God’s own nature is love overflowing: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son…” (4:10) . The immediate effect of this revelation is ethical and ecclesial — “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (4:11). No one has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us (4:12). So in context, “God is love” means that God’s very nature is self-giving love, and therefore authentic knowledge of God is inseparable from living out love. St. Augustine comments on this verse, saying if even this alone were said — that God is love — we should understand that one who lacks love cannot know God . For John, love is the touchstone of true faith in the unseen God .

Trinitarian Interpretation and Mystical Theology

Historically, the Church has drawn profound insights from “God is love” for both Trinitarian theology and mystical spirituality. In Trinitarian terms, this scripture reveals that relationship and love exist within God himself. The Fathers reasoned that if God’s very being is love, then there must be beloved Persons in God from all eternity. St. Augustine famously teaches that the Trinity can be understood as Lover, Beloved, and the Love that unites them . He identifies the Holy Spirit as the mutual love of Father and Son — “the Love that is God” poured into our hearts . Augustine explicates 1 John 4:8 by noting that John does not say “God has love” but “God is Love”, indicating that love is not merely an attribute of God but His very essence . Because the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father in the Spirit, God is a Triune communion of love. Medieval theologians like Richard of St. Victor went further: since God is supremely loving, he argued, there must be plurality of Persons — one person (God conceived as solitary) could not be actualized love, and even two might only love self-centeredly; perfect love is diffusive, shared among Three. Thus the dogma of the Trinity is seen as the fulfillment of “God is love.” The Catechism captures this: “God’s very being is love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, an eternal exchange of love .

In mystical theology, “God is love” has been a wellspring for understanding the soul’s union with God. If God’s nature is love, then union with God is understood as being drawn into the life of divine love. Saints and mystics have interpreted this in experiential terms. For example, St. Catherine of Siena in her Dialogue speaks to God as “mad with love” for us: “You loved me before I existed and you love me unspeakably much, as one gone mad with love for your creature” . She understood God’s infinite charity as the source of all being. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his sermons on the Song of Songs, teaches that to say God is love means that all God’s operations toward us are driven by love, and the goal of the spiritual life is to return love for Love. The mystical tradition holds that in prayerful union, one “rests in God who is love”, often citing 1 John 4:16 (“he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him”) as the fulfillment of 4:8. St. John of the Cross wrote that in the transforming union, the soul is so filled with God’s love that it can love God with God’s own love — a reflection of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul. Indeed, Augustine noted that when we love with true charity, it is God loving Himself in us (since God is love) . Trinitarian theology also sees 1 John 4:8 as implying procession of the Spirit: the Spirit is often called “amor substantiae”, the substantial Love in God. Therefore, “God is love” has been interpreted to mean that God’s unity is triune, and the Trinity’s work ad extra (creation, redemption, sanctification) is an outpouring of divine love. Mystics like St. Thérèse of Lisieux summed up their faith simply as: “My vocation is love”, knowing that to live in love is to live in God. In short, 1 John’s declaration has fueled both doctrinal insight — that the *Trinity is the eternal love communion — and mystical insight: that the summit of human life is to participate in God’s own love .

4. “…partakers of the divine nature.” — 2 Peter 1:4

Immediate Context in 2 Peter

In 2 Peter 1:3–4, the Apostle speaks of God’s grace bestowed on believers. He writes that God’s power has granted us “exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world” (2 Pt 1:4). The immediate context is an exhortation on Christian growth in virtue, grounded in God’s gift. Peter reminds the faithful that God called us to His own glory and goodness, and through His promises (the gift of grace and eternal life) we are enabled to share in God’s nature. The phrase “partakers of the divine nature” (in Greek, theías phýseos koinōnoí) means that Christians are called to truly participate in the life of God. In the epistle, this is tied to escaping worldly corruption and becoming holy. By sharing in the divine nature, we are freed from sin and transformed. The immediate literary context then moves into a list of virtues we should add to our faith (faith -> virtue -> knowledge -> self-control, etc., 1:5-7), suggesting that becoming “partakers of the divine nature” is the basis for moral transformation and growth into God-likeness. Thus, in 2 Peter itself, the phrase points to the elevating effect of grace: God, by grace, elevates us from merely natural life to a new life infused with His own righteousness and immortality. It implies that salvation is not only forgiveness of sins but a real sharing in divine life (a seed of immortality that lets us overcome worldly corruption).

Patristic and Theological Insights on Divinization (Theosis)

This biblical idea became the foundation for the doctrine of divinization, or theosis, in the early Church. The Church Fathers frequently quoted 2 Peter 1:4 to describe the goal of the Christian life. St. Athanasius of Alexandria famously said: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God” . By this he meant that through the Incarnation and grace, human beings are deified by participation, not that we become God by nature, but by grace we share in what God is. Likewise, St. Irenaeus taught, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, through His transcendent love, became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” . These Fathers interpreted “partakers of the divine nature” literally as our becoming sons in the Son — being adopted into the divine life. They carefully clarified that we do not become God by essence (we never become additional Persons of the Trinity), but by God’s loving gift we genuinely share in the divine glory and immortality. St. Cyril of Alexandria explained that the Spirit, given to us, transforms us from earthly to heavenly, “enriching us with participation in the divine nature.” In the West, St. Augustine likewise said: “He who justifies also deifies, in that by justifying He made us sons of God and participants of the divine nature” . Augustine marveled that God makes us “gods” by grace — not equal to the one God, but united with Him in sonship .

Scholastic theologians developed this with precision. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that sanctifying grace is nothing other than a created share in the divine nature: “Grace is a participation of the Divine Nature” . He cites 2 Peter 1:4 to affirm that through grace the rational creature is elevated above its natural condition to a supernatural state as a child of God . Aquinas explains that just as a form elevates matter, grace is a new form given to the soul, orienting it to live by God’s own life . In Aquinas’ theology, to “partake of the divine nature” means to receive a created participation in God’s own being — this is the principle of divine sonship and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church condenses this Patristic and Scholastic teaching: “The Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature'” (quoting 2 Pt 1:4), and it then quotes St. Athanasius and St. Thomas: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God… the only-begotten Son, wanting to make us sharers in His divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” . This doctrine is often called theosis (meaning “deification”) especially in Eastern Christianity. In Eastern Catholic and Orthodox tradition, the entire Christian life — through the sacraments, prayer, and asceticism — is seen as synergy with God’s grace by which we are more and more “divinized.” St. Gregory Nazianzen said Christ’s Transfiguration happened “that He might make us partakers of His divinity”. St. Maximus the Confessor described theosis as growing “by grace to what God is by nature.” All of this is rooted in 2 Peter’s bold phrase.

Theologically, divinization does not erase the Creator-creature distinction. We always remain creatures; yet by grace we truly participate in the divine life (2 Pt 1:4) as adopted children. This is possible because the Son took on our human nature (and even now in heaven remains incarnate) so that humanity could be integrated into the Trinity. As Athanasius noted, Christ “was made man that we might be made God” . In Christ, our humanity is brought into the Son’s relationship with the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, we become “partakers of the divine nature” — we cry “Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6) with the Son’s voice, and are truly given divine life (cf. 2 Pt 1:3: God granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness). In sum, the Fathers and theologians see 2 Peter 1:4 as revealing the high dignity and destiny God offers man: by grace, man becomes “godlike.” This is the basis of what the Eastern liturgy calls “the joyful exchange” — O admirabile commercium: God became man so that man may share in God’s nature . It underscores that salvation is not just pardon but elevation — a true union with God’s Trinitarian life. This transformative union (called communion with the Triune God) will be perfected in the beatific vision, but is begun now through the indwelling Spirit. Thus, both Scripture and tradition testify that by grace we are really made partakers of the divine nature, which is the essence of theosis and the heart of the Church’s understanding of sanctifying grace and eternal life.

5. “…[Man] cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” — Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes §24

Immediate Context and Intent of Gaudium et Spes 24

This quote comes from Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), §24. The council fathers are discussing human dignity and the social nature of man. The document states: “Man, who is the only creature on earth that God willed for its own sake, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” . The immediate context links this anthropological insight to the Trinity and Christ’s prayer for unity. Just before this line, Gaudium et Spes notes that Jesus prayed “that all may be one… as we [Father and Son] are one” (John 17:21-22), revealing a “certain likeness” between the unity of the divine Persons and the unity to which humans are called . Because man is created in the image of God (who is a communion of Persons), man is called to live in communion and love . Thus, the council emphasizes that human beings realize their true selves not in isolation or selfish pursuit, but in self-giving love. The phrase “only creature God willed for itself” means human persons have inherent value and purpose (unlike anything else created as a means, persons are ends in themselves). Yet paradoxically, the council teaches, a person fulfills this God-given purpose by making a gift of self to others and to God . The council’s intention was to affirm a Christian personalism: against the individualism and collectivism of the modern age, it proposes that true personal fulfillment is found in love and service. Gaudium et Spes 24 grounds this in revelation: because God is love and we are made in His image, the law of self-giving is stamped into our nature. The very next article (GS 25) goes on to discuss man’s social nature and the need for community . In short, the council is saying that human dignity finds its apex when we forget ourselves and seek the good of others — in doing so, we actually “find ourselves.” This is exemplified supremely in Christ, who “loved us and gave Himself up for us”, revealing man to himself (GS 22). Thus GS 24 serves as a cornerstone for the council’s Christian anthropology: the human person is called to love as God loves, for only in self-giving love do we discover our true identity as children of God.

Catholic Personalism and Trinitarian Anthropology

Gaudium et Spes §24 became a key expression of Catholic personalism. It encapsulates the idea (championed by thinkers like St. John Paul II) that the human person is most authentically human when living in relationship and self-donation. Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II), who helped draft Gaudium et Spes, later expounded that this “law of the gift” is at the heart of what it means to be human. He wrote, “The call for a sincere gift of self is the fullest way to realize our personal freedom.” In other words, freedom is not license to serve ego, but the capacity to give oneself in love. This teaching is deeply rooted in the Trinitarian nature of God. Because God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is a communion of love, the human person (made in God’s image) is oriented toward communion and self-gift. Gaudium et Spes explicitly connects the unity of the human family to the inner unity of the Trinity: “Jesus implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons and the unity of God’s sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man… cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” . This is Trinitarian anthropology — understanding human nature in light of the Trinity. Since the Trinity is a relationship of self-giving (the Father eternally giving Himself to the Son, the Son to the Father, in the Spirit), being “image of God” means our fulfillment lies in analogous self-giving love. The Council thus anchors human social existence in the mystery of God’s own life.

This principle radiates into various areas of Catholic thought. In marital and family life, for example, John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio taught that the family is a “communion of persons” and a living image of the Trinity precisely when husband, wife, and children give themselves to each other in love. He often quoted GS 24, saying “Man…cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self” to illuminate the meaning of sexuality and marriage as mutual self-donation . In social and political life, this principle undergirds the Church’s emphasis on the common good and solidarity — we fulfill ourselves by seeking the good of all, not by selfish isolation. It is also the foundation of human dignity in Catholic teaching: every person is willed by God for their own sake, yet called to self-gift. Pope Benedict XVI, in reflecting on the Trinity, phrased it succinctly: “God is not solitude, but perfect communion. For this reason, the human person, made in God’s image, realizes himself in love, which is the sincere gift of self.” . Here Benedict ties GS 24 directly to the Trinity: because God is a communion of self-giving love, to be like God (and thus fully human) is to live that self-giving love. This also relates to Trinitarian anthropology in that our destiny is communion with others and ultimately with God. GS 24’s teaching is fulfilled in Christ’s command, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Christ’s total gift of self (even unto death) reveals man’s vocation to make a gift of himself.

In sum, Gaudium et Spes §24 presents a profound truth: human beings find genuine fulfillment not in self-assertion but in self-donation. This is rooted in the fact that we image the Triune God of love. The Council thereby provides a theological basis for Catholic personalist ethics (the person is realized in love) and for seeing human community (the Church, the family, society) as reflecting the Trinity’s love. It also gives an anthropological grounding for why charity is the highest virtue — because in loving self-gift, we become most like God and most truly ourselves. This teaching has had widespread influence, becoming a refrain in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and social teachings. It brings together anthropology and theology: the communion of persons in human life is a sign and participation in the communion of love that is God Himself .

6. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” — 1 Corinthians 12:13

Immediate Pauline Context (One Body in the Spirit)

In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul is teaching about the Church as the Body of Christ and the unity-in-diversity of spiritual gifts. Verse 13 declares the basis of the Church’s unity: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Here Paul reminds the Corinthians that through the Sacrament of Baptism they have all received the same Holy Spirit and have been incorporated into the one Body of Christ. The immediate context (1 Cor 12:12–27) uses the metaphor of a human body with many parts to describe the Church. In 12:12 he states, “as the body is one and has many members… so it is with Christ.” Verse 13 then explains how this one Body is formed: the Holy Spirit’s action in baptism unites all believers to Christ and to each other . The mention of “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” emphasizes that all natural distinctions (ethnic, social) are overcome in the unity of the Church . All the baptized, regardless of background, are now members of the one organism of Christ. To “drink of one Spirit” likely alludes to the Eucharistic cup or generally to receiving the Spirit’s outpouring — either way, it reinforces that the same Holy Spirit indwells every member. Thus, the immediate import is ecclesiological: Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the foundation of the Church’s unity. Paul is combatting divisions in Corinth by pointing them to their common baptism and Spirit. If they all share one Spirit, they must care for one another as parts of a single body (he goes on to say no member can say to another “I don’t need you,” and if one suffers, all suffer, etc., 12:21-26). So 1 Cor 12:13 succinctly expresses that the Church is one Mystical Body, formed by the one Holy Spirit through baptismal rebirth.

Application in Catholic Ecclesiology and Sacramental Theology

The Church has heavily relied on this text to articulate the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ and the role of Baptism and the Holy Spirit. In Catholic ecclesiology, 1 Corinthians 12:13 underpins the teaching that the Church is “born of water and Spirit” (cf. Jn 3:5) as one Body. Baptism is understood as the sacrament that incorporates us into Christ and the Church. The Catechism states that by Baptism we become members of Christ’s Body and are “formed into one people of God” (CCC 1267). Citing 1 Cor 12:13, the Catechism explains: “Through one Spirit we are baptized into one body. Baptism is the sacramental bond of unity” . All who are baptized “have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27) and thus share a fundamental equality in Him. This has practical effects: for instance, the Church teaches that even non-Catholic Christians who are validly baptized are in real (though imperfect) communion with the Catholic Church because of this baptismal incorporation by the same Spirit (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio 3). St. Augustine vividly described the Holy Spirit as the soul that animates Christ’s Body, the Church: “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” . He meant that just as one soul gives life and unity to many bodily organs, the one Holy Spirit gives life and unity to the many members of the Church . Pope Leo XIII echoed this in Divinum Illud Munus, teaching that the Spirit is the principle of every vital action in the Church and unites all members to the Head, Christ . Thus, Catholic ecclesiology sees 1 Cor 12:13 as revealing the inner source of the Church’s unity: the indwelling Holy Spirit received at Baptism.

In sacramental theology, this verse highlights Baptism’s role as the gateway sacrament that causes our spiritual rebirth into the Church. The phrase “baptized into one body” indicates that Baptism isn’t just a personal washing, but a church-constituting event. It both gives the individual new life and also joins them to the community of believers, the Body of Christ . The “one Spirit” is given to all the baptized; as the Catechism notes, through Baptism “the Holy Spirit forms Christians into God’s people” . Sacramental theology further connects this to Confirmation (Chrismation) which deepens the baptismal grace of the Spirit, and the Eucharist which is the sacrament of continued unity (cf. 1 Cor 10:17, see next section). But initially, it is in Baptism that we “drink of one Spirit” — some Church Fathers like St. Cyril of Jerusalem saw an allusion here to the Eucharistic cup as well (“made to drink one Spirit” meaning we receive the cup of the Spirit in the Eucharist), but broadly it means all spiritual refreshment comes from the same Spirit given in Baptism. Either way, Paul’s point is the unity of source: one Spirit baptizes all, one Spirit nourishes all. This undergirds Catholic teaching that the Church is one (one of the four marks: one, holy, catholic, apostolic). Ephesians 4:4–5 similarly says, “There is one body and one Spirit… one baptism.” The Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium §7 cites 1 Cor 12:13 in describing the Church’s mystical body: “In one Spirit all the baptized are made one Body”, and the diversity of members and functions serves the unity of the whole . The Council also teaches that by baptism we are truly incorporated into the crucified and risen Christ, and “we are truly brethren in the Lord” regardless of origin (LG 9).

Thus, 1 Cor 12:13 has practical ecclesial implications: racial, social, and cultural differences do not divide those in Christ. In Paul’s context, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, were starkly separated groups — but in the Church these distinctions are transcended because all share the same Spirit and life in Christ . This verse became a foundation for the Church’s understanding of catholicity (universality) — the Spirit welds diverse peoples into one People of God. It also informs the Church’s teaching on unity of Christians: all baptized, enlivened by the Spirit, should strive to live and worship in harmony, as “one body.” Pius XII, in his encyclical Mystici Corporis (1943), heavily emphasized the Mystical Body doctrine and quoted Paul’s letters to show that harming unity (through schism or discrimination) is like wounding Christ’s Body. He taught that the Holy Spirit is the heart of the Church sustaining its unity and that through Baptism, we become bone of Christ’s bone (MC 54). The Catechism (quoting St. Augustine and Vatican II) sums it up: “The Holy Spirit, dwelling in believers, brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that He is the principle of the Church’s unity” . This is precisely the reality 1 Cor 12:13 describes.

In conclusion, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” is a cornerstone for understanding the Church as the Spirit-created Body of Christ. It shows Baptism as the unifying sacrament, and the Spirit as the source of the Church’s oneness. In Catholic theology, this establishes that to be a Christian is to belong to Christ’s Body, the Church, and that happens through the one Spirit in Baptism. It also encourages us to recognize all baptized persons as truly brothers and sisters in Christ, since the same Spirit has incorporated them. As St. Augustine exhorted, “Have charity, which is the bond of unity. If you have been made to drink of one Spirit, if you have been baptized into one body, do not rend the Body by schism or lack of love”. The Spirit’s unifying presence is a reality that the Church seeks to live out visibly in one faith, one sacramental life, and one charity, fulfilling Jesus’ prayer “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21).

7. “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.” — 1 Corinthians 10:17

Eucharistic Significance in Context

In 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, St. Paul is speaking about the Holy Eucharist. He asks in verse 16, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” and then in verse 17, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Here Paul teaches that the Eucharistic bread unites the many believers into one body. The immediate context is Paul’s argument against Christians participating in pagan idol feasts (1 Cor 10:14-22). He’s reminding them that by partaking of the Lord’s Supper, they are already in communion with Christ and each other; therefore, they cannot also share in “the table of demons” (10:21). The “one bread” refers to the Eucharistic Bread (which Paul just said is a communion in Christ’s Body). Because all Christians eat the one Bread which is Christ, they are “one body in Christ.” This reveals a profound truth: the Eucharist creates and signifies the unity of the Church. In the original Greek, “one bread” (heis artos) likely alludes to the single loaf used in the Eucharist of the community, symbolizing Christ’s one body, which when broken and distributed, makes the many into one. The “one body” in context has a double meaning: it is both the literal body of Christ present in the bread, and the mystical body of Christ which is the Church. We, the many, become one in Him by sharing His one body and one blood. Thus, in context, Paul is emphasizing the horizontal dimension of the Eucharist (not only is each individual in communion with Christ, but all communicants are in communion with each other through Christ). He uses this to urge the Corinthians to shun idol worship — since through the Eucharist they are set apart as one body of the Lord, they must not provoke the Lord by double communion with idols (10:21-22). But in doing so, he gives the Church a timeless teaching: the Eucharist is the sacrament of ecclesial unity.

The Mystical Body and the Eucharist — “Eucharist makes the Church”

The Church has always cherished 1 Cor 10:17 as an expression of how the Eucharist builds up the Church’s unity. As the Catechism puts it: “The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ, and through it Christ unites them to one another” . When we all partake of the one bread (Christ), we become one body. In fact, the ancient Didache (1st century teaching) includes a Eucharistic prayer that echoes Paul: “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and was gathered together to become one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom” . This shows the earliest Christians saw the broken bread gathered into one loaf as a figure of the Church gathered into unity. St. Paul is the first to articulate it scripturally in 1 Cor 10:17. St. Augustine frequently cited this verse in preaching to newly baptized communicants. He would hold up the Eucharistic bread and say: “Behold what you are, become what you receive!” . In one sermon he explains: “If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table; it is your mystery that you receive… You hear ‘The Body of Christ’ and respond ‘Amen.’ So become the Body of Christ, that your Amen may be true.” . Augustine is teaching that the Eucharist both represents and actualizes the unity of the faithful as Christ’s Body. For Augustine, the “one bread” is made from many grains, as the “one cup” from many grapes, and so as the faithful consume the One, they become one. He calls the Eucharist “Sacramentum unitatis” — the sign of unity, and “Vinculum caritatis” — the bond of love . Thus, historically, the Church has understood that communion in the one Eucharistic bread results in the communion of the people in one ecclesial body.

Magisterial teaching also emphasizes this. Vatican II in Lumen Gentium (§7) taught that “really partaking of the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another”. And Pope John Paul II wrote, “The Eucharist builds the Church”, precisely because by sharing one Bread we are welded together in charity and faith. The Catechism §1396 directly quotes 1 Cor 10:17 to explain this: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” It then comments: “In Baptism we have been called to form one body. The Eucharist fulfills this call.” . The Eucharist renews and deepens the unity first given in baptism. It is significant that the Church withholds Eucharistic communion from those not fully in ecclesial communion (such as non-Catholics), precisely because the Eucharist expresses and brings about full unity. As Catholic teaching says, Eucharistic communion is a sign of unity in faith, sacraments, and Church governance — this strictness actually stems from reverence for the profound unity the Eucharist signifies. Conversely, within the Church, the Eucharist is the remedy to divisions: by drawing all to the same Lord, it breaks down sinful barriers between rich and poor, different ethnic groups, etc. (In Corinth, Paul later rebukes them for divisive behavior at the Lord’s Supper in 1 Cor 11:18-22, which contradicts the meaning of the Eucharist he taught in chapter 10).

The phrase “we who are many are one body” also connects to the idea of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. Through the Eucharist, the Church continually becomes what she is — the Body of Christ. Pope Benedict XVI stated, “The Church is a communion born from the Trinity, and her unity is concretely realized around the Eucharistic table, where we partake of the one bread which is the Lord.” This is why the early Christians often called the Eucharist Communion — it is communion with Christ and communion with one another. St. John Chrysostom commented on 1 Cor 10:17: “For what is the Bread? The Body of Christ. And what do communicants become? The Body of Christ. Just as the bread is one, so are we made one body by our partaking of the one bread.” He points out that if we all partake of the same body of the Lord, we become with him one body and one blood, members of each other.

This also ties into mystical theology of union and charity. The Eucharist is the sacrament of charity: it both signifies and causes the love-union of the Church. As Augustine said, “If you want to understand the Body of Christ, listen to the Apostle: ‘You are the Body of Christ and individually members of it’. … You are on the table and you are in the chalice.” In other words, the Eucharist mystically contains the Church (since it is Christ the Head and we the members united). This is a deep mystery: the Church offers the Eucharist, but the Eucharist builds the Church. Therefore, in Catholic practice, each Mass is not a private act but an act of the whole Church, and receiving communion implies one’s unity with the Church’s faith and with all her members.

Finally, 1 Cor 10:17 is central to the doctrine of the “Mystical Body of Christ” first systematically taught by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi. He taught that the Eucharist is the symbol and cause of the unity of the Mystical Body, quoting this Pauline text. Even the Discipline of the sacraments reflects this: the priest breaks one bread (now the Body of Christ) and distributes, symbolizing that we receive from the one Christ and thus form one in Him (the Agnus Dei fraction rite at Mass originally had this symbolism more evident when one loaf was used). In Eastern liturgies, the priest often commingles the portions and shows the chalice, singing “Receive the Body of Christ, taste the fountain of immortality,” reinforcing that the many approach one Christ. The Didache’s prayer we cited shows this was felt from the Church’s infancy .

In conclusion, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body” encapsulates the Eucharistic foundation of Church unity. Theologically, it reveals that the Eucharist is not only personal union with Jesus but also corporate union — it makes the Church. Those many grains of wheat become one bread, just as the many faithful become one in Christ through sharing His Body. This is why the Church calls the Eucharist Communion: it brings about the Communion of Saints, uniting us with Christ and each other. It is also why charity and reconciliation are prerequisites for a worthy communion — for the sacrament to bear fruit, we must be living in the unity and love it signifies. St. Paul’s teaching remains a challenge and an ideal: through the “one bread” of the Eucharist, the Church is called to continually become “one body” in purified love and unity.

8. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” — Acts 17:28

Origin and Context as a Quotation in Acts 17

This line is famously spoken by St. Paul during his Areopagus speech in Athens (Acts 17:16-34). Addressing a pagan Greek audience, Paul proclaims the true God as the creator and sustainer of all. In Acts 17:28 he says: “for ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.'” Here Paul is actually quoting pagan Greek literature to build a bridge to his listeners. The phrase “in Him we live and move and have our being” is commonly attributed to the Cretan poet Epimenides (6th century B.C.) who originally wrote it about Zeus . Paul repurposes it to refer to the one true God. The immediate context (Acts 17:24-28) has Paul explaining that God “does not live in man-made temples” and is not an image of gold or stone. Rather, God made the world and all nations “so that they might seek Him… though He is not far from each one of us” . Then he supports that statement by quoting, “in Him we live and move and have our being.” The effect in context is to affirm God’s immanence and nearness to everyone, using language familiar to Greek thinkers. Paul is essentially saying: God is the One in whom your own poets unknowingly recognized that we exist. Immediately after, he quotes “we are his offspring,” from the Stoic poet Aratus, again applying it to the true God. Thus, in context, “in Him we live and move and have our being” communicates that every human being is utterly dependent on God for existence and life at every moment. God is not a distant deity; we exist within God’s creative and sustaining presence. Paul’s use of this line also shows his strategy of finding “seeds of truth” in Greek philosophy/religion and redirecting them to the fullness of truth. The context is also apologetic: Paul is correcting Greek errors (idolatry) by appealing to their own philosophical intuition that the divine is that in which all things exist.

Integration into Christian Theology — Divine Immanence

The Church quickly recognized Acts 17:28 as a succinct expression of God’s omnipresence and immanence. It conveys that God sustains all creation continuously — we exist “in Him.” This does not mean a pantheistic identity (we are not parts of God’s substance), but that God is present to every creature as the ground of its being. As the Book of Wisdom also says, “You (God) love all things that exist… You spare all, for they are Yours, O Lord, lover of souls, for Your imperishable spirit is in all things” (Wis 11:24-25). In theology, we say God is “immmanens omnibus” — immanent in all things (while also transcendent above all things). Church Fathers like St. Justin Martyr appreciated Paul’s approach: Justin wrote that the seeds of the Word (logos spermatikos) were sown among the Greeks, allowing them to grasp partial truths. The idea that “in God we live and move and have our being” resonated with Platonic and Stoic thought, and the Fathers used it to show common ground with philosophy. Clement of Alexandria often quoted the pagan poets as Paul did, to show that hints of the true doctrine of God’s pervading presence were found in Greek wisdom, ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

In developing the doctrine of Divine Conservation (that God preserves things in being), Scholastic theologians also invoked this verse. St. Thomas Aquinas cites Acts 17:28 when explaining that a creature’s being is totally from God as First Cause, and if God were to withdraw His causation, the creature would vanish. Aquinas writes: “All things are in God as in their first cause, in whom we live and move and have our being” (ST I, q.8, a.1). He elaborates that God is present to each thing by virtue of His creative power — “God is in all things… by His essence, presence, and power” (ST I, q.8, a.3), and he references Acts 17:28 to show that creatures depend on God’s intimate presence for their motion and existence . Thus, in classical theism, God is not a remote watchmaker; rather, creation is within the scope of God’s immediate influence. In God “we live” (He gives us life), “we move” (every action ultimately depends on His concurrence), and “we have our being” (He holds us in existence) .

Divine immanence does not negate God’s transcendence but complements it: God is above and beyond all (wholly other), yet through His power and knowledge is interior to all as well. St. Augustine expressed this beautifully: “God is higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self.” He addresses God in the Confessions: “You were with me, and I was not with You… You called, shouted, and broke through my deafness… You were more inward to me than my most inward part; and higher than my highest” . Augustine here mirrors Acts 17:27-28: God is not far from any of us, indeed closer to us than we are to ourselves. This line became a cornerstone in mystical theology too — the idea that one can “find” God within. Many mystics realized that since our being is in God, one can encounter God in the depths of the soul (while of course God remains infinitely above the soul by nature). The Eastern tradition, e.g. Gregory Palamas, distinguishes between God’s transcendent essence and His immanent energies or grace by which He fills the world — we experience God’s presence (in which we live and move) through His energies.

In missionary and interreligious contexts, Acts 17:28 is paradigmatic of the Church’s attitude of finding truth in other philosophies and then completing it in Christ. Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate and Gaudium et Spes note that other religions sense the divine presence. GS 19 even references Acts 17, saying many have felt this “intimate and vital bond” of man to God, even if they don’t know the full truth . Gaudium et Spes 19 calls it “the intimate and vital bond which unites man to God” (footnoting Acts 17:28) . This verse, therefore, underpins the idea that God’s grace is universally at work and every person, as God’s offspring, can feel after God’s presence. It assures us that God is actively sustaining and near to every person, which is a basis for respect for all humanity (since all “live and move and have being” in God).

In Christian spirituality, this truth encourages the practice of the presence of God — knowing that at every moment, in every place, God is here, the One in whom I exist. It also provides comfort: we are never outside of God’s care or absent from His reach. St. Paul used it to challenge the Athenians’ idol worship by saying essentially: the true God is not distant; you don’t need to make idols to reach Him, He is already sustaining you. And indeed, many philosophers like the Stoics believed the divine Logos pervaded the universe — Paul uses that as a stepping stone to proclaim the personal God who “now commands all people to repent” and has revealed Himself in the Resurrection (Acts 17:30-31).

Thus, when integrated into Christian theology, “In Him we live and move and have our being” affirms God’s omnipresent sustenance of creation. It has been used to teach that God’s creative act is not a one-time event but a continuous holding in being. It supports the idea of God’s immanence against notions that God is detached. Pius XII in Humani Generis even cites Acts 17:28 while discussing God’s causal role in evolution — to remind that God is present in all natural processes as First Cause. The verse also has implications for the sacramental worldview: since we “have our being” in God, the material world can mediate God’s presence (the heavens declare the glory of God, etc.) and God can work through material means (sacraments) without difficulty, as He is already present to them.

In summary, Acts 17:28 — originally a line from a Greek poet about Zeus — is baptized by Paul to proclaim a profound Judeo-Christian truth: God is both transcendent Creator and immanent Sustainer. We exist in total dependence on His immediate presence. This has informed Christian thought on God’s nearness, the dignity of being God’s children (“His offspring”), and the approach to non-Christian thought (affirming whatever truths about God’s closeness are found there). It emphasizes that our life, movement, and being are not self-derived but are gifts flowing at every moment from the One in whom everything exists .

9. “…communion with the Triune God, who, in Himself, is a communion of love.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church (§221)

Role in Trinitarian Doctrine (CCC 221)

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 221 teaches: “God’s very being is love. By sending His only Son and Spirit of Love, God has revealed His innermost secret: God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange.” . The quote in our prompt paraphrases this: our destiny is “communion with the Triune God, who, in Himself, is a communion of love.” In context, this comes at the conclusion of the Catechism’s reflection on the revelation “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). It is highlighting why God created and saved us: out of love, to invite us into the communion of the Holy Trinity. The phrase “communion of love in Himself” expresses the understanding that the Trinity is a perfect loving communion — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an eternal relationship of love and unity. God is not a solitary being (recalling point #2, “God is one but not solitary”); rather, “God is love” means God is tri-personal communion. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Love/consubstantial bond between them — “an eternal exchange of love” . This is in se (in Himself). Then, amazingly, God’s plan is to draw us into that Trinitarian communion. So the Catechism §221 is saying that grace and salvation consist in being brought into union/communion with the Trinity. In effect, it’s the divinization teaching rephrased: “He has destined us to share in that exchange” . The role of this line in the Catechism is to crown the section on the Trinity with the fundamental insight that the Trinity’s inner life is one of love, and our ultimate vocation is to enter that inner life by grace. Thus, it underpins all Christian life as essentially communion with God — not just obedience to God or relationship as creature-Creator, but actual participation in God’s family life (we become, through Christ, adopted children in the Son, filled with the Spirit of love).

Foundation for Communion in Grace and Ecclesiology

This truth that God is a “communion of love” and calls us into communion has deep implications for Catholic understanding of grace, sacramental life, and ecclesiology. First, regarding grace: Grace is nothing less than communion with the Triune God — a sharing in the divine life of the Trinity. The Eastern Fathers would call this theosis; Western tradition calls it sanctifying grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Catechism earlier (CCC 1997) says, “Grace is a participation in the life of God”, making us able to live in God’s love. The fact that the Trinity is a communion of love means that when we are in state of grace, we are actually drawn into that Trinitarian love. Jesus said, “If anyone loves me…my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn 14:23). So the indwelling of God in the soul is Trinitarian: Father, Son, and Spirit come to abide in us — essentially establishing a communion of persons: the human person in communion with the divine Persons. The Church Fathers like St. Ireneaus and St. Cyril of Alexandria taught that through the Spirit, the Father and Son come to us and “make us share in the circle of the divine life.” This is exactly what CCC 221 conveys.

Second, in ecclesiology, the Church is understood as being constituted by communion with the Triune God. Lumen Gentium 4 (quoting St. Cyprian) describes the Church as “a people made one with the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” . That is, the Church is essentially a communion (koinonia) of humans with the Trinity and therefore with each other. The term “communion” has become a key ecclesiological concept after Vatican II. The Church is not merely a sociological entity or an assembly around Christ — she is, at her deepest reality, communion with the Trinity (Communio). The Catechism in ¶777 calls the Church “the sacrament of the Trinity’s communion with men.” And the Council’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes 2) says the Father planned to raise men “to a participation of the divine life” and that from this, the Church was born. So, the Church’s whole mission is to invite people into the communion of love that is the Trinity. Pope John Paul II often said the Church’s communion is rooted in the Trinity’s communion: “The Church is icon of the Trinity: a people united from the unity of Father, Son, and Spirit”. One can see this in the liturgy too — every Mass, in the doxology, we say “Through Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor to the Father…”, and in the Eucharistic Prayer’s epiclesis we ask the Spirit to unite us “so that we may become one body, one spirit in Christ.” The goal of the sacraments is the communion of humanity with the Triune God. For example, Baptism formula (“in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”) explicitly grafts us into the Trinitarian life; and the Eucharist, as discussed, unites us with Christ and through Him with the Father in the Spirit — effectively, a Trinitarian communion. Confirmation is described as the “seal of the Holy Spirit” enabling deeper cry of “Abba, Father.” Thus all of Christian life — sacramental, prayer, moral — is about living out our participation in the Trinity’s love. The classic Eastern prayer, “O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth… come and dwell in us,” speaks to the indwelling Trinity. The Western mystical tradition (e.g. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity) explicitly centered on the indwelling of the Trinity in the soul: “O my God, Trinity whom I adore… give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling.”

The phrase “communion of love” inside God also illuminates the model for human relationships. Because God is a communion of Persons, the Church sees the family as an image of the Trinity: Pope John Paul II wrote, “God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude but a family, since He has within Himself Fatherhood, Sonship, and the essence of family which is love — the Holy Spirit” (Address, 1999). He often called the family “a communion of persons” reflecting the Trinity’s love . So husband, wife, and children united in love mirror the Father, Son, Spirit. The Catechism (CCC 2205) states the Christian family is an icon of the Trinity. Similarly, any Christian community ideally should be a communion of love (cf. Acts 4:32). Jesus’ prayer “that they may be one as We are one” (Jn 17:22) shows that the unity of the Church is meant to reflect the unity of the Trinity . This is what CCC 221’s latter part means: “destined us to share in that exchange [of love].” Our unity with each other in the Church is grounded in our shared communion with the Triune God. As Pope Benedict XVI explained, “The Trinity is a perfect communion of love. The Church must reflect this, becoming a communion in the image of the Trinity” .

In terms of grace and the spiritual life, to “share in the exchange of love” of the Trinity implies the concept of charity (agape) poured into our hearts. Romans 5:5 says “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” That is literally the Spirit enabling us to love God and neighbor with God’s own love — effectively bringing us into the Trinitarian love dynamic. In prayer, when we cry out to the Father, it is the Spirit in us, and through Jesus we approach the Father — a participation in the Son’s own relationship to the Father (Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15). The Eastern liturgy exclaims in the anaphora, “Thou hast united, O Christ, things on earth with things in heaven”, highlighting that in Christ we are brought into the heavenly communion.

Finally, eschatology: Heaven is described precisely as eternal communion with the Triune God — the beatific vision is entering fully into the joy of the Trinity. CCC 260 (a prayerful meditation) says, “O my God… grant that I may ever remain in that communion of love of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. This is the fulfilment of man’s longing. In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life.” And that love is triune and invites us in.

In summary, the Catechism’s teaching that God is, in Himself, a communion of love and calls us to communion with Him serves as a bedrock for understanding salvation as participation in the Trinitarian life. It undergirds why the Church is Communion — both vertically (with God) and horizontally (with one another). All sacraments and Christian existence are directed to this communion. It is a deeply hopeful doctrine: our end is not just to behold God from afar, but to be taken into the Heart of God’s love. As 2 Peter 1:4 said, we become “partakers of the divine nature”; or as St. Paul wrote, “through [Christ] we have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18). The Trinity’s inner love story becomes our story. Thus, the Church understands herself as the family of God (Eph 2:19) precisely because God is a family (communion) of love. By grace, we are made sons and daughters in the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and Son, lives in us. Communion with the Triune God is both the journey and the destination of Christian life — the Church on earth enjoys it imperfectly in mystery (especially in the Eucharist and prayer) and the Church in heaven will enjoy it fully. This truth is the capstone of the Catechism’s section on the Trinity, showing that every aspect of Christian faith — from creation to redemption to sanctification — finds its ultimate meaning in drawing humanity into the Trinitarian communion of love for which we were created .

Sources:

• Fourth Lateran Council (1215), De Fide Catholica: in Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, and CCC 43 .
• Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), §§253-255, 221 .
• St. Augustine, Homilies on 1 John 7-9: “God is Love… Love is of God… Love is God” .
• St. Athanasius, De Incarnatione 54: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God” .
• Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes §24: “Man…cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” .
• St. Augustine, Sermon 272: “Receive what you are (the Body of Christ), and be what you receive.” .
• Didache 9, Eucharistic Prayer: “As this broken bread, once dispersed, was gathered and made one, so gather Your Church…” .
• St. Augustine, Confessions III.6 & V.2: “God, more inward than my innermost and higher than my highest” .
• St. Cyprian (quoted in Lumen Gentium 4): “The Church is a people made one with the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” .
• CCC 1396: “The Eucharist makes the Church… ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body…'” .