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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    321,452
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Classical theists from Augustine through Aquinas explicitly grounded worship-worthiness in God's esse subsistens—pure self-subsistent being—making aseity constitutive, not incidental, to divinity.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Augustine emphasizes God's love and will more than pure being; aseity alone doesn't explain why such a being deserves worship over mere respect.
      ?

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    • 2.Aquinas's Five Ways ground God's worship-worthiness in causal role and perfection, not primarily in esse subsistens as a conceptually prior commitment.
      ?

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    • 3.Even if aseity is necessary for divinity, worship-worthiness may depend on additional properties (goodness, relationality) not reducible to self-subsistence.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Augustine and Aquinas explicitly identify God's self-sufficiency (aseity) as the metaphysical ground distinguishing God from all creatures.
      ?

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    • 2.Worship presupposes absolute transcendence and independence; a deity dependent on creation or external conditions lacks the requisite ontological status.
      ?

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    • 3.Classical theistic texts treat esse subsistens as the defining feature that makes God worthy of ultimate devotion, not as separable from divinity.
      ?

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