Chapter 28 — That God must be intelligent

We must go on to demonstrate that God is intelligent. We have already proved that all perfections of all beings whatsoever preexist in God superabundantly. Now, among all the perfections found in beings, intelligence is seen to possess a special preeminence, since intellectual beings are more powerful than all others. Therefore, God must be intelligent.

Moreover, we pointed out above that God is pure act without any admixture of potentiality. But matter is a being in potency. Therefore, God must be utterly free from matter. But freedom from matter is the cause of intellectuality. An indication of this is that material forms are rendered intelligible in act by being abstracted from matter and from material conditions. Therefore, God is intelligent.

We proved, further, that God is the first mover. This very perfection appears to be a property of intellect, for we observe that the intellect uses all other things as instruments, so to speak, for movement. Thus man, by his intellect, uses animals and plants and inanimate objects as instruments of a sort. Consequently, God, the first mover, must be intelligent.