Thomas and Infinite Participation

Understanding Thomas Aquinas’ Neoplatonic theology of ‘participation’ as μέθεξις is key to interpreting his broader theological system––especially the relationship between the doctrines of God and creation. In this paper, I first retrieve classical Aristotelian (κοινωνία/Koinonia) and Neoplatonic (μέθεξις/Methexis) articulations of the doctrine of participation. I then show that Thomas affirms a unique version of the Neoplatonic notion of participation via an exposition of his commentaries on the Liber de causis and Dionysius’ De divinis nominibus. Once a clear genealogical and textual foundation is laid, I perform an analysis of the ontological structure of Thomas’ rendering of participation. This involves a discussion of items such as divine simplicity, actus purus, creation, and his famous essence/esse distinction. From this, I perform a critical analysis of the relationship between Thomas’ doctrines of actus purus and participation, suggesting that a contradiction may be derived from concepts of infinity. I call this the “Argument from Infinity.”