ABSTRACT
It’s orthodox Western monotheism that God acts freely. Thomas Aquinas was nothing if not orthodox, and so asserts this.1 Further, he thinks that God’s freedom involves alternate possibilities: as He acts, it is in all respects open to Him to do otherwise.2 For he argues that God is omnipotent-that he can bring about any state of affairs whose obtaining would not entail a contradiction3-and that this entails that He had power to do another act instead.4 But for Thomas, God is timeless.5 So God’s power to do otherwise cannot consist in being able fi rst to do one thing, then later in His own life do something else.6 The possibility that He do otherwise must be one He could have realized in the same eternal present in which he actually acts.7
