The title of this thread is widely purported to be a quote from Aquinas, but I can’t find its source. Does anyone know where he says this?
It’s from the Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, q.27, a.4, ad.1.
Thomas is using it to answer the objection that what is not known, cannot be loved. Since it seems we cannot know God in this life, therefore we cannot really love God.
The Latin reads, “Et ideo ubi desinit cognitio, scilicet in ipsa re quae per aliam cognoscitur, ibi statim dilectio incipere potest.”
In English, “And therefore…love can begin at once where knowledge ends, namely in the thing itself which is known through another thing.”
Thomas’ argument is that the order of love and the order of knowledge do not necessarily correspond (we can love more than we understand. A child, for example, may love its mother more than it does when it is an adult and love goes cold, even though knowledge is greater). God can be loved in this life, not because we know God in Himself, but we can love God through the Church, and the sacraments, virtuous life, etc.
He says something similar in his Commentary on 1 Corinthians, where he identifies love with firendship and unity, which transcends knowledge. Knowing someone is not the same as loving them; hence, love takes us beyond the limitations of knowledge.
