Irven M. Resnick

Divine Power and Possibility in St. Peter Damian's De Divina Omnipotentia (Studien Und Texte Zur Geistesgeschichte Des Mittelalters) Irven M. Resnick

Contemporary critics have argued that medieval philosophers have transmitted a concept of divine omnipotence that is unintelligible and self-contradictory: one which defines omnipotence as a power capable of producing any effect whatsoever. This study, concentrating upon the first Latin treatise explicitly devoted to omnipotence, places that concept of divine power in its patristic and early medieval context in order to demonstrate that this "traditional" concept of omnipotence was quite unknown among pre-scholastic figures. This work illuminates the patristic and early medieval background to Damian's seminal text and its theological and philosophical concerns.