Yep,
Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?
- If the pious/good were loved by God because it is already pious, in an independent sense, then goodness would function as an extrinsic standard to which even God must conform.*
This would compromise divine aseity and sovereignty, it would posit a realm of abstract Forms or principles ontologically prior to or co-eternal with the creator.
2. If the pious were pious solely because God loves it, then divine willing would be arbitrary voluntarism. Goodness would rest on divine fiat rather than nature, rendering God’s own self-revelation ultimately unstable.
The resolution is outside both alternatives. Goodness is neither an external measure consulted by God nor an arbitrary decree of the divine will. Rather, the good is identical with the uncreated divine nature itself. God does not look to an external standard, nor does He invent goodness by whim. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the Good in absolute, simple and eternal sense. When God loves or commands what is good, He expresses nothing other than His own unchanging essence, in the one God, essence, will and attribute are not separable parts. This is called divine simplicity. God’s willing of the good is not a disticnt at superimposed upon His naturel it is His nature in its energetic manifestation ad extra.
God’s transcedent essence remains ineffable and imparticipable, yet through His uncreated energies, He communicates Himself to creatures without division or composition. The pious good actions is therefore that which participates in these energies, that which conforms to the divine mode of being revealed in Christ. Piety is loved by God because it is a creaturely reflection and participation in the intra-Trinitarian life of love, truth, and holiness. Coversely, God commands the good because His commands are the economic expression of who He is.
About evil and sin, these are not created substance possessing independent ontoloigcal status, but are rather privation, a “parasitic absence” or distortion of the good. Just as darkness has no positive being, but is merely a privation of light, so sin is the free creaturely turning away from participation in the divine energies toward non-being. God creates only good; eveil eneters through misuse of finite freedom. in the eschaton, evil will be revealed as nothingness it always was. This accoutability has 2 consequences..
- It perserves divine goodness
- it illustrates creaturely responsibility
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