Podcast Description – Set 2: Augustine (Confessions VII.2), Aquinas (ST I.45.3), Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 18–20)
In today’s episode, we continue Augustine’s journey in Book VII of Confessions, as he wrestles with his misconception of God as something spatial and divisible, realizing the absurdity of imagining God as “more present” in larger objects. In Summa Theologica I.45.3, Aquinas affirms that creation is not a change or motion but an entirely distinct act—bringing forth being itself without transformation from anything prior. Justin Martyr, in Dialogue with Trypho, explains why Christians do not observe the Jewish Law: not out of disrespect, but because they understand its purpose. Circumcision, Sabbath observance, and dietary restrictions were instituted not for their own sake, but as temporary measures for a disobedient people. Justin points out that righteous men before Moses—like Noah, Enoch, and Melchizedek—were pleasing to God without such rites, and that even while the Israelites were receiving the Law, they turned to idolatry, prompting further legal prescriptions to restrain their sin.
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