In his book ‘None Greater’, Matthew Barret tells us that God is not a mere instance of divinity. He does not measure up to some standard of divinity that exists apart from him. This is not so for us humans and our human-ness. There is a category of being called human, and you and I are merely one example of that type of being. Divinity is not a category of being of which God is one example. God is divinity itself. He is God-ness itself (the “I Am’).

Anselm argued that God is that being than which no greater can be conceived. Simply put, if you can think of a God greater than the god you have in mind, then you are not thinking about God. Related to this truth, for almost 2000 years, the Church has taught an attribute of God called divine simplicity, but most Christians today have never heard of it, and if they have, they do not know what it is. One reason this doctrine is so important is that the Church has used it to show the failure of polytheism and any lesser god that may be presented.

Divine simplicity is not simple, but it means that God is not made up of parts. For example, he is not part love, part justice, part holy, part omnipotence, etc. In other words, he is not a composite being. A composite being, like humans, must have a composer, and the composer is always greater than the one composed. Hence, if you have a composite God, you do not have a God that than which no greater can be conceived. However, there is more to divine simplicity that takes us deeper.

One of the reasons that God is not made up of parts such as existence, love, justice, etc., is because those things do not exist apart from him. Take justice, for example. God does not measure up to some standard of justice that exists apart from him. He is the standard of justice. Divine simplicity teaches that God is not made up of attributes; he is his attributes.

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