Participation: Aquinas and His Neoplatonic Sources

This essay treats of the (Neo)platonic influences in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, in particular the notion of participation. It describes Aquinas’ doctrine of participation in being as developed from his principal Neoplatonic sources, to wit, Boethius’ De hebdomadibus, Dionysius’ De divinis nominibus, and the Liber de causis. It argues that the doctrine of creation in terms of participation the Christian conditions of creation