45. Divine Vision and the Knowledge of God's Essence

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Problem of Divine Vision #

• Fourth article examines whether created understanding can see God’s essence through its natural powers
• Objection from Dionysius: The angel, as pure and clear, receives the whole beauty of God through its natural understanding
• Key claim: Angels understand themselves and create mirrors of God; therefore they should naturally understand God’s essence
• Thomas’s response: No created understanding can naturally see God’s essence; vision of God requires grace, not nature alone

The Fundamental Principle of Knowledge #

Core principle: Knowledge takes place according as the known is in the knower (“cognitum est in cognoscente”)

• The known must be in the knower, but according to the mode of the knower, not according to its own mode of being
• Whatever is received is received according to the receiver (“quidquid recipitur, recipitur secundum modum recipientis”)
• Application: The mode of knowing cannot exceed the mode of being of the knower

The Critique of Empedocles #

• Empedocles stated: “by water we know water, by air we know air, by fire we know fire, by love we know love, by hate we know hate”
• The principle is correct: the thing known must be in the knower
• But Empedocles misunderstood the manner of reception
• Aristotle’s objection: If by hate we know hate, and there is no hate in God, then God does not know hate—an absurd consequence that something known to creatures is unknown to God
• The distinction: things must be in the knower immaterially, not materially
• Material reception: A chair contains wood but does not know what wood is; a stone struck does not know about stone
• Immaterial reception: The form of the thing is received as other, preserving the distinction between knower and known

The Immateriality of the Intellect #

• The intellect is not the act of any bodily organ (proven in Aristotle’s De Anima, Book 3)
• Evidence for immateriality:
  • The intellect knows universals; senses know only singulars
  • The intellect understands continuous things in a non-continuous way (through definition, not through extended spatial reception)
  • The intellect is open to knowing all bodily things; therefore it cannot itself be bodily
  • Comparison: The eye must lack color to perceive all colors; the tongue must lack taste to perceive all tastes; therefore the intellect must lack bodily nature to know all bodies

Natural vs. Supernatural Knowledge #

• Human intellect (natural powers): Connatural to know things existing in individual matter (bodily things), but abstracted from matter through understanding. Knows universals, not singulars.
• Angelic intellect (natural powers): Connatural to know bodiless substances (other angels) because angels are actually understandable and not in matter
• Divine intellect: Only God’s understanding is connatural to knowing ipsum esse subsistens (subsisting being itself)
• The consequence: No created intellect can naturally see God, whose essence is identical with His being
• The solution: By grace, God joins Himself to the created understanding as something understandable

Three Levels of Being and Knowledge #

1. Bodily things: Being exists only in individual matter. Natural to human intellect (through abstraction)
2. Angels (bodiless substances): Nature subsists by itself but is not its own being; has existence. Natural to angelic intellect
3. God: His way of being is to be (ipsum esse subsistens). Natural only to divine understanding. Above the natural capacity of any created understanding.

Key Arguments #

Argument from the Mode of Being to the Mode of Knowing #

• Premise: The way of knowing is according to the way of being of the knower
• If the way of being of the thing to be known exceeds the way of being of the knower, then knowledge of that thing must exceed the nature of the knower
• Therefore: If God’s being (infinite, uncircumscribed) exceeds the being of any creature, then knowing God exceeds the natural capacity of any creature
• Conclusion: God cannot be naturally known; vision of God requires grace to elevate the understanding

Argument from the Nature of Created Things #

• All creatures are composed of essence and existence (their essence is distinct from their being)
• God alone is His own being (essence and existence are identical)
• No created understanding has its own being (all receive being)
• Therefore: No created intellect is proportioned by nature to know ipsum esse subsistens
• Only supernatural grace can elevate the intellect to this knowledge

Syllogism on Eternal Life and Grace #

• By the grace of God comes eternal life (Romans 6:23)
• Eternal life consists in the vision of God’s essence (John 17:3)
• Therefore: Vision of God’s essence comes by grace, not by nature

Important Definitions #

Key Latin/Greek Terms #

• Cognitum est in cognoscente: The known is in the knower
• Quidquid recipitur, recipitur secundum modum recipientis: Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver
• Ipsum esse subsistens: Subsisting being itself (God)
• Via: The way or road (Latin translation of the Greek hodas); used in phrase “via syllogistica” (by syllogistic reasoning)

Distinction: Material vs. Immaterial Reception #

• Material reception: A thing takes on another thing’s quality as its own property (e.g., wood remains wood; stone becomes hot)
• Immaterial reception: A thing receives the form of another as other, without becoming that thing itself (e.g., the eye receives color without becoming colored)

The Order of Knowledge (from Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics) #

1. Sensation (of singulars)
2. Memory (of what was sensed)
3. Experience (from many memories of singulars)
4. Understanding (separation of universals from particulars by the intellect)

• Induction precedes syllogism because induction proceeds from singulars toward universals; syllogism begins with universals

Examples & Illustrations #

The Senses and Their Objects #

• Taste: The tongue must lack any taste to perceive sweet, bitter, sharp, and oily tastes
• Hearing: The ear must lack Mozart to perceive different sounds
• Sight: The eye must lack color to perceive all colors
• Conclusion: The intellect, which knows all bodies, must lack bodily nature

Temperature Sensation in the Shower #

• When the body adjusts to warm water, the warmth no longer feels as intense
• This is because the body receives heat materially (takes it on as its own quality)
• Knowledge requires immaterial reception: receiving the form of another as other

Recognizing Grandchildren #

• Cannot recognize one’s grandchildren on the street without having their shape and form in memory
• The form must be received in the mind immaterially (as a universal form, not as individual flesh)

Cookies and Individuation #

• A baker stamps many identical cookies from the same dough
• Matter subject to quantity (the dough divided into parts) is the cause of individuation
• What is received in a body is received as singular (here or there)
• What is received in reason is received as universal

Understanding vs. Imagination #

• The English philosopher Locke confused the general idea of triangle with the image of triangle
• An imagined triangle is always individual (isosceles, scalene, or right-angled)
• The understood triangle is universal and cannot be imagined
• This shows the intellect receives things in a non-bodily way

Understanding the Continuous Non-Continuously #

• A definition (e.g., “equilateral and right-angled quadrilateral”) is not continuous, yet it defines a continuous thing (a square)
• This shows the intellect understands continuous bodies in a non-continuous (immaterial) way

The Two Powers of the Soul #

• Powers with bodily organs: The five senses and imagination. Know singulars and sensible qualities only.
• Power without bodily organ: The intellect. Knows universals and bodiless things.
• Soul as “first act of a natural body composed of organs” (organa = tools): gives it the ability to know through both sensory and intellectual powers

The Problem of Presuppositions in Teaching #

• Students with different backgrounds understand the same material differently because “whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver”
• Example: Some students have taken plain geometry, others have not. They cannot equally understand solid geometry.
• Contrast with Thomas Aquinas College: Everyone takes the same courses in sequence, so each student builds on the same foundation

Studying the Soul’s Definition (Aristotle, De Anima, Book 2) #

• To understand Aristotle’s definition of the soul, students need:
  • Knowledge of the Categories (Book 1 of Logic)
  • Knowledge of matter and form from Physics, Book 1 (substance, essence, existence)
• Without this preparation, students cannot grasp the definition
• Similar to teaching theology: “A sacrament is a sign” cannot be explained to those who lack philosophical knowledge of what a sign is

Questions Addressed #

Can Angels Naturally Know God’s Essence? #

• Objection: Angels are pure and clear, receive the beauty of God, understand themselves (clear mirrors of God), have no bodily defect limiting knowledge
• Response: Angels naturally understand themselves and other angels because they are immaterial substances (natures not existing in matter). But God is not merely immaterial; God’s essence is ipsum esse subsistens. No created nature is its own being. Therefore, angels cannot naturally know God’s essence any more than humans can.

Why Does Knowledge Require the Thing Known to Be in the Knower? #

• Principle: You cannot recognize people you meet unless their shape and form are already in your memory
• But: This does not mean material union (a stone in the head does not know stone)
• Explanation: Immaterial reception of forms is necessary—receiving the form of another as other, not as one’s own property

How Can Human Intellect Know What Exceeds Its Nature? #

• Problem: Our intellect’s nature is to know things that can be sensed or imagined. Bodiless things, and especially God, cannot be sensed or imagined.
• Solution: By grace. God, through grace, joins Himself to the created understanding as something understandable. Grace elevates the intellect above its natural capacity.
• Scripture: “In your light we shall see light” (Psalm 36:10)—the light of glory disposes the intellect to receive God’s essence

What Is the Role of Grace in the Vision of God? #

• Grace is not a created likeness of God placed between the intellect and God
• Grace is a supernatural disposition that raises the intellect above its nature
• By grace, God becomes the intelligible form of the mind—the mind knows through God’s essence, not through a created representation
• Only thus can God Himself be seen as He is

Notable Quotes #

“Knowledge happens, takes place, according as the cognitum, the known, is in the cognoscente, the one knowing.”

• Fundamental principle underlying all discussion of knowledge in this lecture

“Whatever is received is received, according to a receiver.”

• Explains why students with different backgrounds understand the same material differently; applies to all knowledge

“The known is in the knower according to the way of the knower.”

• The mode of reception is determined by the knower’s nature, not the thing’s own mode of being

“It’s not in the knower material way, but in a, what? Immaterial way, right?”

• Clarification of Empedocles’s principle: forms must be received immaterially, not materially

“I understand something universal. So I would say it depends upon the imagination there. But my seeing you is not in you at all, is it? It’s in me, right?”

• Distinguishing the reception of sensible forms (in the sense) from understanding

“Your way of knowing can’t, in a way, excel your way of being.”

• Core principle explaining why creatures cannot naturally know God

“It’s by grace, then, that you have the vision of God, and therefore it’s not by nature. Therefore to see the nature of God, belongs to the great understanding by grace, and not by nature.”

• The decisive conclusion: vision of God requires grace, not nature

“In your light we shall see light.”

• Scripture showing that grace (the light of glory) enables vision of God