The Special Presence of God to Man

Abstract

Ficino has taken two routes to God: through the levels of action and unity to omnipotent unity itself; and through being to the infinite creator who is pure being and pure act. The first approach is Platonic in tone, the second Thomistic. The principal characteristic of the way Ficino and Aquinas understand being is the emphasis on its dynamism and its primacy. Being is an act and act is a doing and a causing. Thus, both authors express being by the infinitive form of the verb — to be, to live, to glow, to be wise. Both compare the relationship between a thing and its being to that between a thing and its operation. Ficino even signifies being by the terms ‘act of being’ and ‘act of existing’. Ficino and Aquinas think of being as similar to an activity, a doing.