Therefore, absolute space coupled with the action of the divine will is the ontological precondition of all being. Whereas, for Aquinas, God created and sustains the world through Christ’s emanation from the Father, so for Newton, God creates the world in a co-eternal and uncreated absolute space through the exercise of his will. While space may not be literally God’s sensory medium, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Newton has described a spatial and three-dimensional Godhead. The rejection of Trinitarian relationality, which provides space to the world (as well as purpose) through the mediation of the Son, also results in God collapsing in on the world.
What is lost is purposeful motion that emanates from the “motionless motion” of the dynamic relationality of the Father and Son (which to me involves eternal communion in the Spirit). Newton’s rejection of relationality in the Godhead gives rise to a non-relational universe in which there is no meaningful purpose or distinct place for God. Absolute space displaced Christological mediation in Newton’s scheme. In keeping with Oliver’s analysis, such aimless motion bound up with Newton’s voluntarism, namely, the divine will’s “imposition” on nature, finds a corollary in his Arian Christology.
In contrast to Aristotle and Aquinas, who conceived nature and human life as moving in a meaningful direction toward their intended telos, Newton’s brand of Arian theology coupled with his voluntarism led to a view of the cosmos that for predecessors like Plato and Aristotle would have involved “aimless ‘wandering.’” For Oliver, Newton’s theological convictions made possible his view of nature. To return to Trinitarian orthodoxy, Simon Oliver takes issue with Newton’s religious views’ impact on nature or creation. Now let’s turn to the question of whether or not Newton was a friend of nature.
From the vantage point of his contemporaries who embraced mechanism, Newton was viewed as a friend of that form of religion that entailed the Creator’s ongoing providential engagement of the cosmic machine, preserving it from decay. So, depending on how one approaches the matter, Newton was either a friend or foe of religion. In spite of mechanism serving as an object of disdain or being ignored throughout much of Christian history, Newton and certain contemporaries embraced it as inherently Christian and championed it in their attempts to ward off atheism. It is worth noting at this juncture that the early church fathers would have been horrified by Newton’s mechanistic universe (albeit one that God created and sustained). He was also troubled by the deistic turn in his day (including Descartes’ watchmaker deity) Newton believed that God’s removal from the world would potentially give rise to atheism. Moreover, while there is debate on the relation of faith and science in Newton’s thought, he saw his scientific work as a support for belief in God. That Jesus was beloved of God before the foundation of the world & had glory with the father before the world began & was the principle of the creation of God, the Agent by whom God created this world & who is now gone to prepare another place or mansion for the blessed for in God's house there are many mansions, & God does nothing by himself which he can do by another.Ĩ That Jesus is the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head, the Shiloh predicted by Jacob, the Prophet predicted by Moses, the Paschal Lamb, the son of David whose throne should be established for ever, the son of God mentioned in the Psalms, the son of Man predicted in Daniel’s prophecy of the four Beasts, the Messiah predicted in Daniel’s prophecy of the weeks, the Prince of Princes predicted in Daniel’s prophecy of the Ram & He Goat, the great Prince Michaelmentioned in the end of Daniel & in the Apocalypse, & the Word or Oracle of God whose testimony is the spirit of prophecy.On the other hand, Newton engaged in serious theological study, including natural theology and biblical prophecy. Transcription of above passage (with modernised spelling & circling added):ħ.