162. Knowledge of Separated Souls: Habits, Acts, and Distance

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Persistence of Habits of Knowledge After Death (Article 5) #

The fundamental question: Do habits of science (ἐπιστήμη/scientia) acquired during earthly life remain in the separated soul?

The Thomistic Position: Habits of science remain in the separated soul insofar as they exist in the understanding itself, but not insofar as they exist in the lower sensory powers.

• Division of the Habit: Science has two components:
  • In the Understanding (primarily): The intelligible forms and the facility of the intellect to understand through received forms
  • In the Lower Powers (secondarily): The imagination, memory, and cogitative power that provide dispositions for understanding
• What Remains: The habit as it exists in the incorruptible understanding persists
• What Is Lost: The habit as it exists in the sensory powers is corrupted with the body
• Why It Persists: The understanding is incorruptible, and intelligible forms cannot be corrupted by contraries (nothing is contrary to an intelligible intention)

Key Principle: Just as knowledge of sickness does not corrupt knowledge of health, but rather helps illuminate it, intelligible forms are stable in the separated soul.

Acts of Knowledge in the Separated State (Article 6) #

The question: Can the separated soul perform the same acts of science it performed in earthly life?

The Thomistic Resolution: The separated soul can perform acts of science with the same object (forma) but not in the same mode (modus).

Form vs. Mode in Acts:

• Form of an act: Determined by the object to which the knowing power is directed through an intelligible form
• Mode of an act: Determined by the power and state of the agent

In This Life:

• Understanding occurs by turning toward images (phantasms)
• Acts are difficult and require effort (e.g., learning geometry by imagining triangles)
• The habit, once acquired, allows performance with facility (delectability)

In the Separated State:

• Understanding occurs through intelligible forms flowing from divine illumination
• No turning toward images is required
• Acts are performed in a way suitable to the separated soul
• The same object is understood but through a different mode

Analogy: One can walk faster in air than in water. The muscles are the same, but the medium (state/condition) differs. Similarly, the intelligible forms are the same, but the soul’s state is different.

Local Distance and Knowledge (Article 7) #

The question: Does local distance impede the knowledge of separated souls?

The Resolution: Local distance does not impede the knowledge of separated souls.

Reasoning:

• Separated souls know singular things through the inflowing of divine light (the divine forms)
• Divine light is equally present to what is near and what is distant
• Therefore, place in no way impedes such knowledge

Distinction from Time:

• Distance in place vs. distance in time operates differently
• Things distant in place are beings in act and thus knowable
• Things distant in time (future events) are not yet in act and thus not knowable
• This is why separated souls cannot know future things

Augustine’s Ambiguous Position: Augustine does not clearly assert that local distance is the cause of souls’ ignorance of earthly affairs; other reasons may account for it.

Knowledge of Events Among the Living (Article 8) #

The question: Do separated souls know what is happening among the living?

The Answer: By natural knowledge alone, no.

Reasoning:

• The separated soul is naturally turned toward the immaterial world and spiritual substances (angels), not toward bodily affairs
• The soul is, by divine ordering and mode of being, separated from association with the living and joined to the association of spiritual substances
• The life of the spirit differs fundamentally from the life of the flesh (Gregory the Great)

How They May Know:

• Through special divine revelation
• Through souls of the newly departed who come to them
• Through angels or demons who may communicate such knowledge
• Through divine ordering according to justice

Important Caveat: A person who prays for a soul in purgatory cannot assume that soul naturally knows of the prayer. However, God may supernaturally reveal this.

Difference for Blessed Souls: According to Gregory the Great, blessed souls who see God face-to-face (in the beatific vision) do know all present things, for “what does the soul that sees God not know?” Augustine appears less certain on this point.

Key Arguments #

Against Persistence of Habits (Objection) #

1. From 1 Corinthians 13: “Science is destroyed” — therefore habits of science do not remain

   • Response: St. Paul speaks of the act of knowledge, not the habit itself. He says “I know in part; then I shall know perfectly.”

2. Inequality Problem: If habits remain, less virtuous persons could have more knowledge than more virtuous ones in the afterlife

   • Response: This creates no unfitting inequality, as the blessed will have far greater prerogatives (seeing God more clearly) that far outweigh differences in scientific knowledge

3. Two Forms Problem: Intelligible forms in the separated soul would constitute two types of science (from bodily turning and from divine inflowing)

   • Response: These are not two sciences of the same kind; one is derived from images, the other directly from God

4. Corruption Through Death: Death is a greater change than sickness, and sickness corrupts science; therefore death corrupts it

   • Response: This argument applies to science as it exists in the sensory powers, not as it exists in the understanding

Against Acts Remaining (Objection) #

1. From Aristotle’s De Anima: The separated soul neither recalls nor loves; but considering what one knows is recalling

   • Response: Aristotle speaks of reminiscence (ἀνάμνησις/memoria) as a sensory operation, not the retention of intelligible forms in the understanding

2. Dependence on Images: Intelligible forms are no more potent in the separated state than in this life; we cannot understand without turning to images here; therefore we cannot understand without them there

   • Response: The power of understanding does not change, but the state of the soul changes. The soul is naturally turned toward the immaterial world when separated, not toward bodily images

3. Acts Like Their Habits: Habits produce acts similar to those by which they are acquired; habits are acquired by turning to images; therefore they can produce no other acts

   • Response: Acts resemble habits in species (formal object), not in mode of operation. One can do just acts with difficulty (acquiring the habit) and later do them with ease and pleasure (exercising the habit)

Arguments Supporting Persistence #

1. From St. Jerome: “We learn on earth the science of which remains with us in heaven”

2. From the Incorruptibility of the Understanding: The understanding itself is incorruptible; intelligible forms cannot be corrupted by contraries; therefore the habit of science must remain

3. From the Stability of Forms: Forms are received in the understanding in a much more stable way than they are received in the body; therefore they will remain even more stably when the body is gone

Important Definitions #

Intelligible Forms (Εἰδή νοητοί / Formae Intelligibiles) #

• In this life: Forms abstracted from sensible images through the agent intellect (νοῦς ποιητικός / intellectus agens)
• In the separated state: Forms flowing directly from divine illumination, which are likenesses of the divine ideas by which God knows and creates all things

Habit (Ἕξις / Habitus) #

• A stable disposition of a power to act in a certain way
• Distinguished from act (ἐνέργεια / actus): the habit is the disposition; the act is the exercise of that disposition
• In knowledge: the habit is the stable possession of intelligible forms; the act is the actual understanding

The Cogitative Power (Vis Cogitativa / Λογιστικόν) #

• An interior sense power that grasps particulars with a quasi-universal character
• Bridges imagination and reason
• Does not persist in act in the separated soul (though its root remains)

Form and Mode (Μορφή / Forma and Τρόπος / Modus) #

• Form of an act: Its essential character, determined by the object
• Mode of an act: The manner or way of performing it, determined by the state and power of the agent

Examples & Illustrations #

The Geometry Lesson #

A student learning geometry must:

• Form images of triangles and circles in imagination
• Turn the understanding toward these images
• Through repeated acts, acquire a habit (facility) for understanding geometric forms

Once the habit is acquired:

• The student can understand geometry with ease rather than difficulty
• In the separated state, the student would understand the same geometric truths but not by imagining triangles—rather through intelligible forms received from divine light
• The knowledge acquired through study (particular and distinct) differs from the confused universal knowledge of the separated state

Walking in Air vs. Water #

One can walk faster in air than in water:

• The muscles and physical strength are the same
• The difference comes from the medium (the state/condition)
• Similarly, intelligible forms are the same in the separated soul as in the embodied soul, but the soul’s state is different
• In the body, the soul’s operation is turned toward material images; separated, it is naturally turned toward the immaterial world

The Rich Man in Hell (Luke 16:28) #

The rich man, though separated from his body, knows about his five brothers and is concerned for their salvation. However:

• This knowledge comes not from natural awareness of earthly affairs
• Rather, it comes through special divine ordering or arrangement
• It demonstrates that separated souls can know some singulars, but only those to which they have special relation or determination

St. John Bosco’s Seminarian Friend #

A fellow seminarian of St. John Bosco made an agreement with him: whoever died first would return to tell the other of his salvation. When the friend died:

• He appeared to John Bosco in a vision of divine light
• He proclaimed his salvation
• This illustrates how separated souls may communicate with the living through divine permission and special ordering

Notable Quotes #

“Science is what? Destroyed, right?” — 1 Corinthians 13 (cited by Berquist as addressing the objection)

“We learn on the earth, the science of which remains with us in, what, heaven, huh?” — St. Jerome, Epistle to Apollinaris (cited by Berquist)

“The life of the spirit is much different from the life of the flesh” — Gregory the Great, Moralia, Book 12 (cited by Berquist)

“What does the soul that sees God not know?” — Gregory the Great (cited by Berquist as defending the blessed souls’ knowledge of all present things)

“We’re both praising God. I’m praising God face to face, and you’re praising God behind a veil.” — St. Teresa of Avila, appearing to a sister after death (cited by Berquist)

Questions Addressed #

Question 89, Article 5: Do Habits of Science Acquired Here Remain in the Separated Soul? #

Objections:

1. Science is destroyed (1 Cor. 13)
2. Some less virtuous persons are more knowledgeable than more virtuous ones; it would be unfitting if this inequality persisted
3. Science from images and science from divine inflowing would constitute two forms of the same kind
4. Death is a greater change than sickness; sickness corrupts science; therefore death does

Thomas’s Response: The habit of science, insofar as it exists in the understanding, remains. It is lost only insofar as it exists in the sensory powers. The understanding is incorruptible, and intelligible forms cannot be corrupted by contraries.

Question 89, Article 6: Does the Act of Science Acquired Here Remain in the Separated Soul? #

Objections:

1. The separated soul neither recalls nor loves (Aristotle)
2. Intelligible forms are no more potent separated than embodied; we cannot understand without images here; therefore we cannot there
3. Acts resemble the habits from which they come; habits are acquired by turning to images; therefore acts must proceed from images

Thomas’s Response: The separated soul retains the act of science with the same object (form) but not in the same way (mode). It understands by forms flowing from divine light, not by turning to images.

Question 89, Article 7: Does Local Distance Impede Knowledge of Separated Souls? #

Objections:

1. Augustine: souls of the dead cannot know things here
2. Augustine/Demons: demons know distant things through swift motion; distance impedes knowledge
3. Distance in time impedes knowledge (no knowledge of future); therefore distance in place should too

Thomas’s Response: Local distance does not impede knowledge because divine light is equally present to near and distant things. Distance in time is different because future things do not yet exist in act.

Question 89, Article 8: Do Separated Souls Know Things Done Among the Living? #

Objections:

1. The rich man knows his brothers (Luke 16:28)
2. The dead frequently appear and admonish the living (1 Kings 28, Samuel and Saul)
3. If they know things among themselves, why not things among the living?

Thomas’s Response: By natural knowledge, no. The separated soul is naturally turned toward the immaterial world, not toward bodily affairs. However, they may know through divine revelation, communication from newly arrived souls, or divine ordering. Blessed souls seeing God know all present things.