Chapter 69 — That God in creating things does not presuppose matter

This makes it clear that, in creating, God has no need of preexisting matter from which to fashion things. No agent needs prior to his action what he produces by his action. The builder requires stones and lumber before he can set to work, because he is unable to produce these materials by his action. On the other hand, he does not presuppose a house, but produces it by his activity. But matter must be produced by God’s action since, as has just been proved, everything that exists in any way at all has God as the cause of its existence. Therefore, the conclusion follows that God does not presuppose matter in his activity.

Moreover, act is naturally prior to potency, and hence the notion of principle primarily belongs to act. But any principle that in causing presupposes some other principle has the notion of principle only in a secondary way. Accordingly, since God is the principle of things as first act, whereas matter is a principle of things as a being-in-potency, it is unfitting that God, in acting, should presuppose matter.

Furthermore, the more universal a cause is, the more universal its effect is. For particular causes make use of the effects of universal causes for something determinate; and such determination is related to a universal effect as act to potency. Hence any cause that causes something to be in act, utilizing preexisting material that is in potency to that act, is a particular cause with respect to some more universal cause. But this sort of procedure cannot pertain to God, since he is the first cause, as we showed above. Consequently, God does not need matter as a prerequisite to his action. Therefore, he has the power to bring things into existence from nothing or, in other words, to create. This is why the Catholic faith professes that he is the Creator.