Page "Divine simplicity" Paragraph 3

Furthermore, according to some, if as creatures our concepts are all drawn from the creation, it follows from this and divine simplicity that God's attributes can only be spoken of by analogy — since it is not true of any created thing that its properties are identical to its being.

Consequently, when Christian Scripture is interpreted according to the guide of divine simplicity, when it says that God is good for example, it should be taken to speak of a likeness to goodness as found in humanity and referred to in human speech.

Since God's essence is inexpressible ; this likeness is nevertheless truly comparable to God who simply is goodness, because humanity is a complex being composed by God " in the image and likeness of God ".

The doctrine aides, then, in interpreting the Scriptures so as to avoid paradox — as when Scripture says, for example, that the creation is " very good ", and also that " none is good but God alone "— since only God is goodness, while nevertheless humanity is created in the likeness of goodness ( and the likeness is necessarily imperfect in humanity, unless that person is also God ).

This doctrine also helps keep trinitarianism from drifting into tritheism, which is the belief in three different gods: the persons of God are not parts or essential differences, but are rather the way in which the one God exists personally.