Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It would seem that the angels have no cause of their existence. For the first chapter of Genesis treats of things created by God. But there is no mention of angels. Therefore the angels were not created by God.

Objection 2: Further, the Philosopher says (Metaph. viii, text. 16) that if any substance be a form without matter, "straightway it has being and unity of itself, and has no cause of its being and unity." But the angels are immaterial forms, as was shown above (Question 50, Article 2). Therefore they have no cause of their being.

Objection 3: Further, whatever is produced by any agent, from the very fact of its being produced, receives form from it. But since the angels are forms, they do not derive their form from any agent. Therefore the angels have no active cause.

On the contrary, It is said (Ps. 148:2): "Praise ye Him, all His angels"; and further on, verse 5: "For He spoke and they were made."

I answer that, It must be affirmed that angels and everything existing, except God, were made by God. God alone is His own existence; while in everything else the essence differs from the existence, as was shown above (Question 3, Article 4). From this it is clear that God alone exists of His own essence: while all other things have their existence by participation. Now whatever exists by participation is caused by what exists essentially; as everything ignited is caused by fire. Consequently the angels, of necessity, were made by God.

Reply to Objection 1: Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xi, 50) that the angels were not passed over in that account of the first creation of things, but are designated by the name "heavens" or of "light." And they were either passed over, or else designated by the names of corporeal things, because Moses was addressing an uncultured people, as yet incapable of understanding an incorporeal nature; and if it had been divulged that there were creatures existing beyond corporeal nature, it would have proved to them an occasion of idolatry, to which they were inclined, and from which Moses especially meant to safeguard them.

Reply to Objection 2: Substances that are subsisting forms have no 'formal' cause of their existence and unity, nor such active cause as produces its effect by changing the matter from a state of potentiality to actuality; but they have a cause productive of their entire substance.

From this the solution of the third difficulty is manifest.

Articulus 1

Argumentum 1

Ad primum sic proceditur. Videtur quod Angeli non habeant causam sui esse. De his enim quae sunt a deo creata, agitur Genesis I.

Sed nulla mentio fit ibi de Angelis.

Ergo Angeli non sunt creati a deo.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, philosophus dicit, in VIII metaphys., quod si aliqua substantia sit forma sine materia, statim per seipsam est ens et unum, et non habet causam quae faciat eam ens et unum.

Sed Angeli sunt formae immateriales, ut supra ostensum est.

Ergo non habent causam sui esse.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, omne quod fit ab aliquo agente, per hoc quod fit, accipit formam ab eo. Sed Angeli, cum sint formae, non accipiunt formam ab aliquo agente. Ergo Angeli non habent causam agentem.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod dicitur in Psalmo CXLVIII, laudate eum, omnes Angeli eius.

Et postea subdit, quoniam ipse dixit, et facta sunt.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod necesse est dicere et Angelos, et omne id quod praeter deum est, a deo factum esse. Solus enim deus est suum esse, in omnibus autem aliis differt essentia rei et esse eius, ut ex superioribus patet. Et ex hoc manifestum est quod solus deus est ens per suam essentiam, omnia vero alia sunt entia per participationem. Omne autem quod est per participationem causatur ab eo quod est per essentiam, sicut omne ignitum causatur ab igne. Unde necesse est Angelos a deo creatos esse.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod Augustinus dicit, in XI de CIV. Dei, quod Angeli non sunt praetermissi in illa prima rerum creatione, sed significantur nomine caeli, aut etiam lucis.

Ideo autem vel praetermissi sunt, vel nominibus rerum corporalium significati, quia Moyses rudi populo loquebatur, qui nondum capere poterat incorpoream naturam; et si eis fuisset expressum aliquas res esse super omnem naturam corpoream, fuisset eis occasio idololatriae, ad quam proni erant, et a qua Moyses eos praecipue revocare intendebat.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod substantiae quae sunt formae subsistentes, non habent causam aliquam formalem sui esse et suae unitatis, nec causam agentem per transmutationem materiae de potentia in actum, sed habent causam producentem totam substantiam.

Ad 3

Et per hoc patet solutio ad tertium.