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Aseity (from Latin a "from" and se "self", plus -ity) (self-existence, self-causation, self-causality and autocausality) is the property by which a being exists of and from itself.
It usually refers to the monotheism belief that God does not depend on any cause other than himself for his existence, realization, or end, and has within himself his own reason of existence. This represents God as absolutely independent and self-existent by nature.
While commonly discussed in Christian theology, many Jewish and Muslim theologians have also believed God to be independent in this way. This quality of independence and self-existence has been affirmed under various names by theologians going back to antiquity, though the use of the word 'aseity' began only in the Middle Ages.
In its negative meaning, which emerged first in the history of thought, it aseity affirms that God is uncaused, depending on no other being for the source of His existence. In its positive meaning, it affirms that God is completely self-sufficient, having within Himself the sufficient reason for His own existence.The first concept derives from "the God of philosophers" (a concept first described by Xenophanes), while the second one derives from "the living God of Revelation" ( I Am Who I Am: Exodus )..
As a part of this belief, an aseitous God is said to be incapable of changing (see Hebrews 13:8) Changing implies development. Since God was, and is, and is to be the Absolute Perfection, there is no need to change: he is αὐτουσία (unchanged: Gregory of Nyssa), pp. 162, 172, 174.See also occurrences. actus purusPohle (1911). P. 164. and ipsum esse subsistensPohle (1911). Ibid..See also occurrences. (Thomas Aquinas).
Many (Aquinas, for instance) have also thought that aseity implies divine simplicity: that God has no parts of any kind (whether spatial, temporal, or abstract), since complexes depend on their individual parts, with none of which they are identical. Summa Theologica, I, Q. 3, Art. 7. Classical theists have often drawn a further implication: that God is without emotion or is impassibility: because, it is said, emotion implies standing as patient (pass-) to some agent – i.e., dependence.For an exposition of Augustine's theory of emotions, especially with respect to God's perfection, see Nicholas Wolterstorff's "Suffering Love" in Philosophy and the Christian Faith, ed. Thomas V. Morris (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1988). This is so because, although God has created everything, he is not in dependence on his creation.
Aseity has also been criticized as logically incompatible with the concept of God as a being or with God as existing.Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1951) 236ff. Furthermore, it can be argued that for the notion of aseity not to be logically circular or inconsistent, the supposed entity to which it applies would have to be identified with its properties, instead of instantiating, exemplifying or having its properties, and would therefore be a nonsentient force or potential of indeterminate vitality (see monad). This seems to contradict the notion that God is a person or a causal agent, for persons or agents are not properties (or complexes of properties).Richard M. Gale, On the Nature and Existence of God Schopenhauer attributes Aseity (self-dependent) to will, as the only being by and of itself, apart from causal relationships.Payne, E. "The World as Will and Representation" (Vol.2) Dover. 1958, p. 320
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