ABSTRACT
A metaphysics of God’s providence, presents, following the same text-based strategy as used in Chapter 3, how Aquinas sought to affirm the radical and continuous dependence of all things upon God as their cause. The chapter will first focus on the Aquinas doctrine of God as pure being in order to pave the way for his exposition of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, from which his metaphysical doctrine of providence springs. The text will argue that complete dependence of creatures upon God is fully compatible with the discovery of real causes in nature. As such, Aquinas can argue for a God who, without disrupting the order of natural causes, governs providentially the development of the universe acting in and through these created causes.
