What does it mean when we say something is “good”? Consider for a moment what makes a good smartphone, a good teacher, or a good cup of coffee. Are we applying the same criteria of goodness to each? When we call a smartphone “good,” we might mean it has excellent battery life, a sharp display, and reliable performance. A good teacher might be patient, knowledgeable, and engaging. And a good cup of coffee might be rich in flavour, properly heated, and freshly brewed.
This diversity in what constitutes “goodness” leads us to a fundamental question: Is there any common thread that connects all instances of goodness? Aquinas provides a compelling answer that helps us understand not only what goodness means but also how it relates to God’s nature and our purpose.
The Meaning of Goodness
Consider a “good” chef. What makes them good? We might say their technical skills, creativity, consistency, or ability to manage a kitchen. But at its core, when we call a chef “good,” we’re really saying they possess the qualities we desire in someone preparing our food. This points to Aquinas’s central insight: goodness is fundamentally about desirability.
But doesn’t this make goodness purely subjective? If I desire a chef who deliberately undercooks chicken, does that make them “good”? Here’s where Aquinas makes a crucial distinction between what is desired and what is truly desirable. A chef who consistently serves undercooked chicken isn’t meeting the objective criteria of what makes a chef good – namely, preparing safe, delicious food that nourishes people.
Think about a “good” bridge. While someone might desire a rickety, unsafe bridge for nefarious purposes, we wouldn’t call it a good bridge because it fails to fulfill the essential purpose of a bridge: safely connecting two points across a gap. The bridge’s goodness isn’t determined by individual preferences but by how well it fulfills its nature as a bridge.
Being and Goodness
This leads us to another profound insight: the connection between being and goodness. Can something be good if it doesn’t exist? Can it be good if it doesn’t possess the essential qualities of what it’s supposed to be? The answer to both questions is no, highlighting the fundamental connection between existence and goodness.
Consider a professional athlete. Even if they’re not performing at their peak, they must possess certain basic qualities – physical fitness, understanding of their sport, basic skill level – to be considered an athlete at all. These fundamental qualities represent a kind of basic goodness that comes with simply being what they are. This is what Aquinas means when he says that everything that exists possesses some degree of goodness simply by virtue of existing as what it is.
But what about evil or badness? Aquinas offers a sophisticated understanding: evil isn’t a thing in itself but rather the absence or corruption of goodness what he calls in Latin privatio boni, deprivation of good. Think of a clock that no longer keeps time correctly. Its “badness” as a clock isn’t a positive quality but rather the absence of what it should have – accurate timekeeping ability. It still exists as an object and thus has some degree of goodness (it still has being), but it lacks the proper functioning that would make it a good clock.
This understanding helps us grasp how things can be both good and bad in different respects. Consider a skilled surgeon who uses their abilities to harm rather than heal. As a human being, they possess the basic goodness that comes with existence and the developed goodness of their surgical skills. Yet in their moral choices, they lack the goodness proper to human ethical behaviour. They are simultaneously good (in their basic existence and capabilities) and bad (in their moral choices).
A more profound example is serious illness, like cancer. Why do we say cancer is bad? Not because it has some positive quality of “badness,” but because it actively undermines human flourishing and existence. It prevents a person from fully being what they are meant to be as a human being. The badness of cancer lies in how it corrupts and diminishes the proper functioning and existence of the person it affects.
This leads us to a crucial insight: everything that exists must possess some degree of goodness simply by virtue of existing as what it is. Even things we might call “bad” in some respect must possess some goodness simply to exist at all. A corrupt politician still exists as a human being; a failing business still operates in some capacity; even a disease, though harmful to its host, exists as a biological entity. This doesn’t mean these things are good in every way, but rather that existence itself implies some participation in goodness.
God’s Goodness
So how does this understanding of goodness relate to God? If goodness is about fulfilling one’s nature and being desirable, what does it mean to say God is good? Here’s where Aquinas’s argument becomes particularly interesting.
First, consider where all instances of goodness come from. The good chef creates good meals. The good architect designs good buildings. The good teacher produces good students. In each case, the effect reflects something of its cause. If we follow this chain of causation back far enough, Aquinas argues, we must arrive at a source of all goodness – God.
But God’s goodness isn’t like the goodness of a chef or a bridge. Why? Because God isn’t an instance of a kind – there isn’t a category “god” of which the divine is a particularly good example. Instead, God is goodness itself, the source from which all particular instances of goodness flow.
Think of it like light and color. A red apple isn’t giving off its own light – it’s reflecting the light that falls on it. Similarly, when we recognize goodness in things – whether it’s the skill of a craftsman, the beauty of a sunset, or the loyalty of a friend – we’re recognizing reflections of divine goodness expressed in particular ways.
Implications and Human Purpose
This understanding of goodness has profound implications, particularly for human purpose and fulfillment. When we say God is good, we’re not saying God meets some external standard of goodness (like a good chef meeting the standards of culinary excellence). Instead, God is the standard of goodness itself, and this has direct consequences for how we understand human purpose and flourishing.
Consider again the bridge example. A bridge that fails to connect two points effectively ceases to be a bridge in any meaningful sense – it loses its essential nature. Similarly, human beings have an essential nature and purpose that flows from their relationship to the source of all goodness. Just as a bridge’s purpose is inherent in its design, human purpose is inherent in our creation by and relationship to God.
In the Christian understanding that Aquinas develops, this purpose finds its fullest expression and revelation in Jesus Christ. Christ reveals not only God’s nature but also what authentic human nature looks like when fully aligned with its divine purpose. This gives us a critical insight: our goodness as human beings isn’t simply about moral behavior or accomplishments, but about fulfilling our fundamental purpose of relationship with God.
Think about a musical instrument. A violin might be beautifully crafted, but if it’s never played – if it never fulfills its purpose of making music – can we say it’s truly being what it was meant to be? Similarly, human beings might achieve various forms of success or excellence, but if they’re disconnected from their fundamental purpose of knowing and reflecting God’s goodness, they’re like that unplayed violin – existing but not fully realizing their nature.
This explains why many people, even those who seem to “have it all,” often feel a deep sense of purposelessness or emptiness. Just as a bridge that doesn’t connect or a violin that doesn’t play fails to fulfill its nature, human beings who aren’t living in accordance with their divine purpose experience a fundamental disconnection from their true nature.
The implications are far-reaching:
- Our purpose isn’t something we invent but something we discover. Just as a bridge’s purpose is built into its design, our purpose is built into our nature as beings created for relationship with God.
- True human flourishing can’t be reduced to material success, pleasure, or even moral behavior alone. These might be good things, but they’re secondary to our primary purpose of knowing and reflecting divine goodness.
- When we fail to live according to our purpose, we don’t just fail to achieve something external to us – we fail to fully be ourselves. Like the faulty bridge that ceases to truly be a bridge, we diminish our own being when we disconnect from our source and purpose.
- The path to fulfillment isn’t primarily about self-improvement but about alignment with our true nature and purpose as revealed in Christ. It is the love of God which is expressed in the way of service to others. This alignment finds its practical expression in the Beatitudes, which show us how to participate more fully in the goodness that is our source and end. The Beatitudes aren’t just moral guidelines – they’re a description of what human nature looks like when it’s fully aligned with its divine purpose.
Living Our Divine Purpose: The Path to True Fulfillment
Aquinas’s understanding of goodness and God offers not just a philosophical framework but a practical guide to human fulfillment. It explains why the search for purpose can’t be satisfied by anything less than connection to the source of all goodness. When we understand that our goodness flows from fulfilling our nature as beings made for relationship with God, we begin to grasp both the dignity and the responsibility of human existence.
This perspective challenges contemporary notions of self-determined purpose and meaning. It suggests that true fulfillment comes not from creating our own purpose but from discovering and living according to the purpose for which we were created. In Christ, we see this purpose fully revealed – to know God, to reflect divine goodness, and to find our completion in relationship with the source of all being and goodness.
