scholarly journals Thomas Aquinas, the Beatific Vision and the Role of Christ: A Reply to Hans Boersma

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
Simon Francis Gaine
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
The Relationship

This article continues a conversation with Hans Boersma on the role of Jesus Christ in the beatific vision enjoyed by the saints. In his book Seeing God, Boersma maintained that there is a Christological deficit in Thomas Aquinas’s account of the beatific vision. In response I suggested that Aquinas held that Christ’s beatific vision is forever the cause of that of the saints. In his reply to me, Boersma more or less accepted my conclusion, but claimed there was still a Christological deficit because Aquinas mentions the thesis only rarely. He then drew attention to a second, more important factor in the alleged deficit, namely, Aquinas’s identification of the divine essence rather than Christ as the vision’s object. The present article responds to both elements of the alleged deficit, arguing against Boersma on the basis of the Summa Theologiae’s structure that there is no such deficit in Aquinas. While Boersma, after finding against Aquinas, moves in conclusion “towards a theophanic view of the beatific vision,” in my own conclusion I sketch out an alternative, Thomist account of the relationship between the beatific vision and heavenly theophany.

Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rik Van Nieuwenhove
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Theology And Philosophy ◽  
Key Questions

Contemplation, according to Thomas Aquinas, is the central goal of our life; yet a scholarly study on this topic has not appeared for over seventy years. This book fills that obvious gap. From an interdisciplinary perspective this study considers the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of the contemplative act; the nature of the active and contemplative lives in light of Aquinas’s Dominican calling; the role of faith, charity, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in contemplation; and contemplation and the beatific vision. Key questions addressed are: What is contemplation? What is truth? How can we know God? How do faith and reason relate to one another? How does Aquinas envisage the relations between theology and philosophy? What role does charity play in contemplation? Throughout this book the author argues that Aquinas espouses a profoundly intellective notion of contemplation in the strictly speculative sense, which culminates in a non-discursive moment of insight (intuitus simplex). In marked contrast to his contemporaries Aquinas therefore rejects a sapiential or affective brand of theology. He also employs a broader notion of contemplation, which can be enjoyed by all Christians, in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are of central importance. This book should appeal to all those who are interested in this key aspect of Aquinas’s thought. It provides a lucid account of central aspects of Aquinas’s metaphysics, epistemology, theology, and spirituality. It also offers new insights into the nature of the theological discipline as Aquinas sees it, and how theology relates to philosophy.

The Enduring Interim

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the basic economic life in the Middle Ages, noting the absence of trade or a market during the period. It first considers the legacy of the Romans with respect to economic and political life, including their commitment to the sanctity of private property and Christianity. In particular, it describes Christian attitudes toward wealth and the link between morality and the market. It also examines the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Nicole Oresme before turning to the role of markets in the Middle Ages, along with their special characteristics. Finally, it looks at other aspects of economic life during the medieval period, such as the intrusion of ethics on economics—the fairness or justice of the relationship between master and slave, lord and serf, landlord and sharecropper.

2. Natural law and morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-73
Author(s):  
Raymond Wacks
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship between the ancient classical theory of natural law and its application to contemporary moral questions. It considers the role of natural law in political philosophy, the decline of the theory of natural law, and its revival in the twentieth century. The principal focus is on John Finnis’s natural law theory based largely on the works of St Thomas Aquinas. The chapter posits a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ natural law, examines the notion of moral realism, and examines the tension between law and morality; and the subject of the moral dilemmas facing judges in unjust societies.

From paradise to brand

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-135
Author(s):  
Rainer Hülsse
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Financial Centre ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Image ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Considerable Body

Metaphors construct social reality, including the actors which populate the social world. A considerable body of research has explored this reality-constituting role of metaphors, yet little attention has been paid to the attempts of social actors to influence the metaphorical structure by which they are constituted. The present article conceptualises the relationship between actor and metaphorical structure as one of mutual constitution. Empirically, it analyses how until the late 1990s Liechtenstein was constructed as an attractive financial centre by metaphors such as haven and paradise, how then a metaphorical shift constituted the country more negatively, before Liechtenstein finally fought back: with the help of the new brand-metaphor and also a professional image campaign the country tried to repair its international image.

scholarly journals Religijne inspiracje w twórczości muzyków jazzowych

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Piotr Spyra
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Religious Music ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Subordinate Role ◽  
Music And Religion

<p>The main purpose of the dissertation is an attempt to answer the question of how religion inspired and still inspires the works of jazz musicians. Some people think that jazz and religion have nothing in common or even that they are in opposition. The present article tries to show that this common way of thinking is not correct: jazz grew from religious music, and owing to its creative freedom (improvisation) it can be very a good way of expressing religious feelings. The thesis consists of two major parts. The first part contains an attempt to systematize the relationship between music and religion. Relying on the knowledge about ethnography and religion, the author discusses the subordinate role of music in relation to religion. The next chapter presents the most important philosophical and theological attempts to explain the phenomenon of music. The last chapter is devoted to the presentation of the religious roots of jazz. The second part discusses the works of selected jazz musicians in the context of different religions. Featured here are the following faiths: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology and some original religious systems. At the end of the paper there is a summary. The author proves that over the centuries religion has accompanied and inspired the works of the most famous musicians who have gone down in history as outstanding jazz musicians. Many of them openly declared their faith, thanked God on CD’s, in interviews, in the titles of songs. Many of them created forms associated with religious (sacred) music. Others sought in the spiritual world their identity, sources of their talent and mystery of making music, and some were inspired by selected aspects of religion.</p>

The Virtue of Justice and the Justice of Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Ryan Darr ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Personal Virtue ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Justice, according to Thomas Aquinas, is a personal virtue. Modern theorists, by contrast, generally treat justice as a virtue of social institutions. Jean Porter rightly argues that both perspectives are necessary. But how should we conceive the relationship between the virtue of justice and the justice of institutions? I address this question by drawing from Aquinas’s account of the role of the convention of money in mediating relations of just exchange. Developing Aquinas’s account, I defend two conclusions and raise one problem. The conclusions are: (1) Aquinas does presuppose the need for just institutions in just relations; (2) Aquinas highlights the importance of an underappreciated consideration: the way institutions mediate just or unjust relationships. The problem, which naturally arises from bringing together the virtue of justice and the justice of institutions, is whether and how individuals can act justly in a context of structural injustice.

scholarly journals Thomas Aquinas on the Beatific Vision: A Christological Deficit

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Hans Boersma
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
John Owen

This article argues Aquinas’s doctrine of the beatific vision suffers from a twofold christological deficit: (1) Aquinas rarely alludes to an eternally continuing link (whether as cause or as means) between Christ’s beatific vision and ours; and (2) for Aquinas the beatific vision is not theophanic, that is to say, for Aquinas, Christ is not the object of the beatific vision; instead, he maintains the divine essence constitutes the object.  Even if Aquinas were to have followed his “principle of the maximum” in the unfinished third part of the Summa and so had discussed Christ’s own beatific vision as the cause of the saints’ beatific vision, he would still have ended up with a christological deficit, inasmuch as Christ would still not be the means and the object of the saints’ beatific vision.  For a more christologically robust way forward, I draw on John Owen and several other Puritan theologians, who treat the beatific vision as the climactic theophany.

scholarly journals Communal Knowledge and the Beatific Vision

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Joshua Cockayne
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Perfect Knowledge ◽  
Vision Of God

In this paper, I will consider what role, if any, our communion with the saints plays in our knowledge and communion with God. By considering recent work on the epistemology of personal knowledge and epistemology of religious ritual, I argue that our communion with the saints in some way enhances our knowledge of God. This conclusion has implications for our understanding of the beatific vision. According to Thomas Aquinas, those who are saved will receive a vision of the divine essence and thereby come to perfect knowledge of God. In attaining this perfect knowledge, Aquinas maintains, a human being will be perfectly happy. Thus, on Aquinas’s picture of the doctrine, communion with the saints is not necessary for perfect happiness or perfect knowledge of God. I suggest that there are two solutions to this problem. First, following Christopher Brown, we must say that whilst perfect happiness cannot be improved upon it can be somehow more extensive. Or, secondly, we must say that, in some sense, the beatific vision is communal in nature. Whilst God remains the object and source of perfect happiness on such an account, our vision of God is a shared vision.

scholarly journals Negotiating the Relationship Human – Non-Human as a Question of Meaning in Twentieth Century Iranian Authenticity Discourse: The Role of Ǧalāl Āl-e Aḥmad’s Essay West Infection

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-750
Author(s):  
Urs Gösken
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Critical Essay ◽  
The Face ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Philosophical Doctrine

Abstract The present article investigates the intellectual and discursive orientation of the culture-critical essay West Infection by the twentieth century Iranian writer Ǧalāl Āl-e Aḥmad (1923–1969). In doing so, it likewise discusses the question of why this particular text was to have so deep and lasting an effect in redirecting the sociocultural modernization debate among Iranian intellectuals from a mainly developmentalist discourse to one about the issues of authenticity and identity. While considering Āl-e Aḥmad’s essay as raising a question of meaning – more specifically the question of human being’s meaning in the face of dehumanization under the spell of technological ‘Westernization’ –, we critically examine, in the course of our study, former interpretive approaches that define Āl-e Aḥmad’s text as reflecting influence on the author of existentialist philosophy. At the same time, we also address scholarly discussions of West Infection that regard it as a manifestation of nativism or leftist anti-capitalism. Rather than trying, in our turn, to pin down what Āl-e Aḥmad has to say to any given ideological or philosophical doctrine, we attempt to understand the use by Āl-e Aḥmad, in his essay, of terms such as ‘authenticity’, ‘alienation’, ‘identity’ and ‘religion’ – some of which are highly evocative of existentialism and of nativism indeed – as constitutive of a discourse that – for all the arguable influence on it of modern ideologies and philosophies – deserves to be treated as a word in its own right in the debate about Iran’s sociocultural situation.

S'UNIR À L'INTELLECT, VOIR DIEU. AVERROÈS ET LA DOCTRINE DE LA JONCTION AU CŒUR DU THOMISME

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-247
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Brenet
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Body ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
De Anima ◽  
Conceptual Coherence ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Vision Of God

AbstractThe article examines the relation that Aquinas' theory of the beatific vision maintains with Averroes' noetics as presented in his Great Commentary on the De anima. Starting with his Commentary on the Sentences, in which the young Thomas Aquinas offers an explicit transposition of the philosophical intellection of separate substances into the Christian theological order, through to his later works where no mention of it is found, we will endeavour to present the exact nature of these borrowings and to evaluate their accuracy by questioning the conceptual coherence of Aquinas' gesture: could Aquinas base his conception of a vision of God by essence on a noetic construction which was originally part of a system judged both erroneous and contrary to faith? Can one concede theologically, concerning the relation between divine essence and intellect, what one refuses philosophically, concerning the relation between the separate intellect and the body? Although Aquinas and his followers, in the incipient quarrel, assert it to be so, we will indicate how the original paradoxical borrowing maintains something conceptually problematic at the heart of Aquinas' thinking.

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