La cognoscibilidad de Dios según Mateo de Mimbela SJ

The Jesuit Mateo de Mimbela, Spanish by birth and professor in New Spain at the end of the seven-teenth century, represents the last relevant version of Jesuit scholasticism before the Expulsion of 1767, as stated in his treatise De Divina Essentia et Attributis, whose Disputation 1 deals with the knowability of God. Although it follows the traditional structure proposed in Thomas Aquina’s Sum-ma Theologiae, it advances considerably in some epistemological aspects, in keeping with its time. The interest of this text lies in the fact that it reviews all the positions held in the Company, which had developed with greater emphasis the internal discussions, and not only with the opposing Schools, resulting in an accurate overview of the status quaestionis of the issues it includes, as I have shown in my participation in the previous SOFIME Congress, with a presentation on divine relationships. I focus especially on the following points that I consider novel: 1. The epistemic status of the proposi-tion «God exists»; 2. The discussion on the possibility of invincible ignorance of that proposition; 3. If a real act of faith is possible about said proposition.