The Infinity of God and a Finite World: A Franciscan Approach

by Kenan B. Osborne, OFM This volume, focuses on the issue of the infinity of God, particularly within the Roman Catholic tradition. The Old and New Testament do not mention God’s infinity. From 100 to 1200, only a few Christian theologians offered some insights into divine infinity. One of the earliest in-depth presentations on divine infinity was developed by Alexander of Hales and his co-editors of the Summa who began to unite the writings of Aristotle on infinity with the Christian understanding of the triune God. Subsequent theologians, namely, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, and John Duns Scotus, developed lengthy studies on divine infinity. The in-depth theological focus on God’s infinity came to a stop with the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent. From the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth-century, the theological focus of almost all Western Christian Churches focused on ecclesiology in which the various Christian scholars argued th