Suarez and Descartes

Searching for precedents for Descartes’ notion that God is causa sui Jean-Luc Marion finds that “Suarez anticipates Descartes’ daring formula, de ipso Deo . . . , because, like him, he begins by submitting God to what will become the principle of reason, and, in order to succeed in this, to an interpretation of the divine essence as a ratio .” In the words of Suarez, the question of cause “may even be asked concerning God, not because he needs any cause in order to exist, but because the immensity of his nature is the cause or reason why he needs to no cause in order to exist.”