God and Philosophy

Étienne Gilson's "God and Philosophy" presents a sweeping intellectual history that traces the evolving relationship between philosophical inquiry and the concept of God from ancient Greece through medieval Christianity to modern philosophy. The work constitutes both a historical analysis and a philosophical argument, examining how different eras have conceived the fundamental metaphysical questions surrounding divine existence and nature.

Gilson begins with the Greek philosophers, demonstrating how their pursuit of first principles and ultimate causes laid groundwork for later theological speculation without fully arriving at the Christian conception of God. He argues that while Aristotle's Prime Mover and Plato's Forms approached transcendent reality, they remained bound by assumptions about the eternity of the world that prevented recognition of creation ex nihilo. This historical foundation serves Gilson's larger argumentative purpose: to show how Christian revelation transformed philosophical possibilities by introducing the notion of existence itself as the primary divine attribute.

The work's central contribution lies in its analysis of how medieval thinkers, particularly Thomas Aquinas, synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology to develop a metaphysics centered on God as pure existence (ipsum esse subsistens). Gilson contends this synthesis represents philosophy's highest achievement in approaching the divine, as it grounds all contingent beings in necessary existence. His treatment of the cosmological argument emerges not as abstract reasoning but as the natural culmination of philosophy's historical development when properly informed by the concept of creation.

Gilson then traces what he views as philosophy's decline in the modern period, arguing that Descartes, Kant, and subsequent thinkers severed the vital connection between existence and essence established by medieval philosophy. This separation, he maintains, led to either reductive naturalism or fideistic retreat, both representing failures to sustain philosophy's proper relationship with theology. Throughout, Gilson employs his expertise in intellectual history to build a cumulative case that philosophy finds its authentic fulfillment only when it remains open to the transcendent horizon revealed by Christian faith.

The monograph stands as a significant contribution to natural theology, offering both historical erudition and philosophical argumentation. Gilson's neo-Thomist perspective challenges both secular philosophical assumptions and Protestant fideism, advocating for reason's legitimate role in approaching divine mysteries while acknowledging its ultimate dependence on revelation.