Terminology Tuesday: Order of Being/Order of Knowing

Order of Being/Order of Knowing: Medieval distinction between the ontological order and the epistemological order. For example, Thomas Aquinas believed that God is the ground of existence for all other beings. Hence, in the order of being (ontology), God is primary. However, humans come to know finite objects through their senses first and must infer the existence of God from God's effects. Thus, in the order of knowing (epistemology), finite objects precede God.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 86.