Aquinas and Maimonides on the Possibility of the Knowledge of God

Purpose Moses Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed is pervaded by a p- manent tension regarding the possibility and extent of the knowledge of God by a created intellect, which lies at the roots of the 13th century controversy over Maimonides' writings. While Maimonides asserts that "e;its purpose is to give indications to a religious man for whom the validity of our Law has become 1 established in his soul and has become actual in his belief,"e; one of its early opponents, Meshullam ben Solomon, writes referring to him: "e;Those who deny the proper attributes of God speak out 2 until faith has been drained out of man."e; He will instead claim to be "e;determined to know the God of my fathers and my 3 thoughts are continuously of Him"e;. Meshullam understands that despite Maimonides' interest in preserving his readers' faith, he leads them to skepticism by denying the possibility of any positive knowledge of the essence of God.