(Latin: emano, to flow from)
The act of a thing issuing out of its source as a property or accident of that source. Philosophical emanation or emanationism, variously conceived and applied, is commonly accepted as meaning the derivation of all things from the First Reality by emanation as by a necessity of nature, some immediately, other mediately. It is a process of descent from the perfect to the less perfect, the First Source remaining unchanged. It is condemned by the Council of the Vatican as opposed to the Divine Nature especially in its simplicity and infinity. The Church affirms that God by an act of His will created all things out of nothing.