U
UnderTruth
Guest
In Summa I.12, I.13, and V.92, Thomas talks about the vision of God.
However, he seems to say that God cannot be mentally comprehended, but rather that we will attain a kind of immediate experience of God’s existence, and he compares it to the kind of immediate knowledge we have of the principles of reason (like non-contradiction). (I.12.vii, I.12.xiii)
But just as the bounds of the intellectual principles are like the form of our mind, such that as soon as content enters, we become aware of the form it is taking (like a puddle filling its hole), it seems that Thomas then speaks of “deiformity” of the will, which is charity toward God, as being the form which allows for the vision of God. (I-II.62.iii)
This seems to imply that it is by becoming holy and virtuous that we then see the form of God in our own essence, rather than through the qualities and actions of things around us from which we abstract to the existence of God.
And St. Gregory of Nyssa seems to confirm this in his On The Beatitudes VI, section 144 (available here: books.google.com/books?id=Cw3yoYzFlqoC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false ) when he says purity, dispassion, and holiness are how we see God, in those things.
But this seems to be different from at least my prior conception of what the Beatific Vision is supposed to be. And rather more like the Eastern idea of Theosis.
Could you clarify this, please? I have tried asking around a few places.
However, he seems to say that God cannot be mentally comprehended, but rather that we will attain a kind of immediate experience of God’s existence, and he compares it to the kind of immediate knowledge we have of the principles of reason (like non-contradiction). (I.12.vii, I.12.xiii)
But just as the bounds of the intellectual principles are like the form of our mind, such that as soon as content enters, we become aware of the form it is taking (like a puddle filling its hole), it seems that Thomas then speaks of “deiformity” of the will, which is charity toward God, as being the form which allows for the vision of God. (I-II.62.iii)
This seems to imply that it is by becoming holy and virtuous that we then see the form of God in our own essence, rather than through the qualities and actions of things around us from which we abstract to the existence of God.
And St. Gregory of Nyssa seems to confirm this in his On The Beatitudes VI, section 144 (available here: books.google.com/books?id=Cw3yoYzFlqoC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false ) when he says purity, dispassion, and holiness are how we see God, in those things.
But this seems to be different from at least my prior conception of what the Beatific Vision is supposed to be. And rather more like the Eastern idea of Theosis.
Could you clarify this, please? I have tried asking around a few places.