Chapter 24 — That the many names applied to God do not remove his simplicity

This enables us to perceive the reason for the many names that are applied to God, even though in himself he is absolutely simple. Since our intellect is unable to grasp his essence as it is in itself, we rise to a knowledge of that essence from the things that surround us. In these things, we discern various perfections, all of whose root and origin is one in God, as has been shown. Since we cannot name an object except as we understand it, seeing as names are signs of things understood, we cannot give names to God except from perfections perceived in other things that have their origin in him. And since these perfections are multiple in such things, we must assign many names to God. If we saw his essence as it is in itself, a multiplicity of names would not be required: our knowledge of it would be simple, just as his essence is simple. And we await this vision in the day of our glory, in accord with Zachariah 14:9: On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.