What Makes It What It Is?
The workbook starts with a pickup to separate a thing’s nature from features it can gain or lose. Try the distinction with familiar examples before applying it to divine attributes.
Nature · Essential features · Accidents
Would it still be the same kind of thing?
Classify each feature, then test whether a change alters the kind of thing you are discussing.
Classify the feature
Choose an answer.
Bring it back to the workbook
Color and trim can change without changing a pickup’s kind. Remove the cargo bed and make it an enclosed passenger vehicle, and the classification changes. Identifying what belongs to a nature prepares the class to ask what belongs to the divine nature.
Discuss: Choose another familiar thing. Name one feature essential to that kind and one accidental feature. Where does this comparison stop helping when we speak of God?