把属性归于神，谈论神的本质，这意味着什么？ What does it mean to attribute properties to God and to speak about God's divine essence?
这有一个传统，我们在圣经中就能找到。 There's a tradition of doing so; we find it in the Bible.
例如，圣经说神是良善的、智慧的、慈爱的。 The Scriptures speak, for example, about God as good, wise, or loving.
而且在古代哲学中，甚至在前基督教时期的希腊人中，就有一个试图谈论神的本性的传统。 But also, in ancient philosophy, there was a tradition—even with the pre-Christian Greeks—of trying to speak about the very nature of God.
你能在亚里士多德或普罗提诺的著作中找到这点，而在早期 教父的著作中，也有很多关于神的名号和神的属性的深思。 You find this in Aristotle or Plotinus, and in the early Fathers of the Church, there's a lot of rumination about the divine names or the attributes of God.
这传统延续到盛期中世纪，当时的伟大作者们写了许多关于神的属性的论著。 This carried over into the High Middle Ages where great authors wrote treatises on the divine attributes.
例如神的单纯性、完美性、良善性、无限性、无所不在、不变性、永恒性和统一性。 Examples include things like God's divine simplicity, perfection, goodness, infinity, omnipresence, immutability, eternity, and unity.
在这里，我想只关注圣托马斯阿奎那在《神学大全 》中谈到的头两个神的属性：单纯性和完美性。 Here, I'd like to focus simply on the first two of the divine attributes that St. Thomas speaks about in the Summa Theologiae: simplicity and perfection.
当我们谈论神的单纯性时，一开始可能会觉得这很违反直觉。 When we talk about divine simplicity, we could think at the beginning that that's something very counterintuitive.
人是复杂的，他们的思维和意志都是复杂的。 Human beings are complex; their thinking and willing is complex.
如果神理解我们，为了理解世界上发生的一切，他必须比我们更复杂才对。 If God understands us, He must be even more complex than we are in order to understand everything that's going on in the world.
实际上，在阿奎那的思想中，单纯性指的是类似于非复合性的东西。 Actually, simplicity in Aquinas is denoting something like non-composition.
神是单纯的，不是复合的，在本体论上不像受造物那样复杂。 God, who is simple, is not composite, not complex ontologically in some of the ways that creatures are.
让我简要谈谈其中的四个方面。 Let me talk about four of those ways briefly.
首先，我们每个人都有身体和灵魂，所以我们是复合的受 造物，因为我们有灵性理性的灵魂和有机体的动物身体。 First of all, each of us has a body and a soul, so we are composite creatures because we have a spiritual rational soul and an animal body with organic parts.
但神没有身体，他不是身体和灵魂的复合体，他不是动物或物质对象。 But God has no body; He's not a composite of body and soul; He’s not an animal or physical object.
所以神比我们更单纯，神完全是非物质的。 So God is simpler than we are; God is wholly immaterial.
第二，我们每个人都是与许多其他人共享本性的一类存在。 Second, each of us is a kind of thing that shares our nature with many others.
例如，我们每个人都是人，在这方面，我们都是平等的。 So, for example, each of us is a human being; in that respect, we're all equal.
我们拥有相同的人性，我们没有人能说，我就是人，我就是人性本身。 We have the identical and same human nature; none of us could say, I am man; I am what it is to be human.
我们是人性的具体实现——共享同一物种和类别的个体。 We are realizations of human nature—individuals who share a common species and kind.
这对我们在宇宙中看到的一切都是如此：许多土豚、许多树木 、许多星星、许多种类的事物，每种类都体现在许多个体中。 This is true of everything we see around us in the universe: many aardvarks, many trees, many stars, many kinds of things, each kind instantiated in many individuals.
但神不是这样的，在他里面没有本质和个体的复合。 This is not the case with God; there's no composition of essence and individual.
神是唯一的神。 God is the only one who is God.
并不是有许多创造者之神，而我们的神只是其中之一 ，相反，这位创造主是万物的创造者，只有他是神。 There are not many gods who are creators, of which our God is only one; rather, the Creator is the Creator of all things, and only He is God.
你可以这样说：只有神具有神性。 You might say it this way: only God has deity or divine nature.
只有那位创造万物的主才是那位独特的、赐予万物存在的主。 Only He who has made all things is He who is entirely unique as the giver of being to all things.
没有谁像神，除了神以外没有谁有神性。 No one is like God; no one has the divine nature but God.
第三，神不从他者那里获得存在，所以在他里面没有本质和存在的复合。 Third, God doesn't receive His existence from others, and so there's no composition in Him of essence and existence.
我们是依赖性的存在，但神是单方面赐予万物存在的主。 We’re dependent beings, but God is the unilateral giver of being to all things.
他不从任何人那里获得存在，所以他本质上不是依赖的或被造的。 He receives His being from no one, so He is not essentially dependent or created.
相反，存在对神来说是本质的，存在是他本性的一部分。 Rather, it is essential to God; it is of His very nature to exist.
在某种意义上，我们甚至可以说他就是纯粹的存在。 Even in a certain way, we could say that He is pure existence.
例如，在出埃及记三章十四、十五节中，神在燃 烧的荆棘中对摩西说：「我是自有永有的」。 So, for example, when God speaks to Moses in the burning bush in the story in Exodus 3:14 and 15, He says, I am He who is.
只有神能这样说自己：我确实是自有永有的。 Only God can say that of Himself: truly, I am He who is.
因为对神来说，存在是他的本性，他的存在是完美和纯粹的。 Because in God, it is of His very nature to exist, and His existence is perfect and pure.
最后，神没有任何完善他的实体或本性的知识属性。 Lastly, God does not have any properties of knowledge that perfect His substance or nature.
例如，你我可以随着时间变得精通数学，可以完善我们的数学知识。 So, for example, in you and I, we could become mathematical over time, and we could perfect our knowledge of mathematics.
或者我们可以变得有道德美德。 Or we could become morally virtuous.
我们的心智和意志可以进化或退化，但神没有这种属性。 We can evolve or devolve in the mind and in the will, but God doesn't have properties of this kind.
事实上，我们必须说，在某种意义上，神就是他的知识和他的爱。 In fact, we have to say that, in some sense, God simply is His knowledge and His love.
例如，我们没有人能说，我就是爱或我就是智慧，但约翰在他的 第一封书信中说，神就是爱，本质上在他的一切所是中都是爱。 For example, none of us could say, I am love or I am wisdom, but John in his first letter says, God is love, essentially love in all He is.
圣经中也说神就是智慧——自存的、实质的智慧。 And it's also said in the Bible that God is wisdom—subsistence and substantial wisdom.
最终，神里面的这智慧和知识与他的爱和良善是合一的。 Ultimately, this wisdom and knowledge in God is one with His love and His goodness.
现在，当我们谈论神的完美性时，我们说的是因着他的纯粹实现而属于他的事物。 Now, when we speak about God's divine perfection, we're speaking about something that pertains to Him in virtue of His pure actuality.
神不会因着他与世界的互动而有可能变得更大或更小。 God is not in potentiality to become something greater or something lesser based on how He interacts with the world.
神创造世界不是为了提升自己的道德，他帮助我们或拯救我们也不是为了提升自己。 God didn't create the world to improve Himself morally; He doesn't help us or save us to improve Himself.
他不可能行事失败，他不可能不高尚。 He can't fail to do well; He can't fail to be noble.
神超越那些有限的完美属性的实现。 God is above those kinds of finite realizations of properties of perfection.
所以关于神的完美性的用语表示一个奥秘——神 拥有无限的生命、存在、知识、智慧和良善。 So the perfection terms of God signify a mystery—that God has life, being, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness without limitation.
现在，从这两个神的名号出发，我们可以开始思考许 多其他逻辑上源于神的单纯性和完美性的神的属性。 Now, from these two divine names, we can begin to think about a whole host of other divine attributes that follow, as it were, logically from considering the simplicity and perfection of God.
例如，从他的单纯性，我们可以开始思考神的不变性和永恒性。 For example, from His simplicity, we can begin to think about God's immutability and eternity.
从他的完美性，我们可以思考他的良善性和无限性，然 后我们可以继续思考他的无所不在和统一性等话题。 From His perfection, we can think about His goodness and infinity, and we can then go on to topics like His omnipresence and His unity.
阿奎那在《神学大全》第一部分向我们展示了这种知识秩序是如何展开的，这是一种 灵修操练——这是理智上升到神那里，深入思考神是谁，并通过知识和爱更接近神。 Aquinas shows us how this order of knowledge unfolds in the first part of the Summa Theologiae, and it's a kind of spiritual exercise—it's an ascent of the intellect up to God to think deeply about who God is and to grow closer to God by knowledge and by love.
想要阅读更多内容、收听播客和观看更多类似视 频，请访问Aquinas101.com。 For readings, podcasts, and more videos like this, go to Aquinas101.com.
在那里，请务必注册我们的阿奎那免费视频课程之一 ，别忘了点赞并与朋友分享，因为你的想法很重要。 While you're there, be sure to sign up for one of our free video courses on Aquinas, and don't forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think.