46. The Light of Glory and Differential Vision of God

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Light of Glory (Article 5) #

The Central Problem: Does created understanding need supernatural light to see God’s essence?

Key Distinction: The light of glory is not required to make God understandable (God is already pure act and infinitely intelligible), but rather to elevate the created understanding’s power to receive God as its intelligible form.

What is a Disposition? (dispositio)

• A disposition belongs to the first species of quality
• Examples: health is a disposition of the body; grace is a disposition of the soul
• Disposition prepares a subject to receive a form above its nature
• When air receives the form of fire, heat is the necessary disposition

The Principle of Supernatural Elevation

• Whatever is raised to something above its nature requires a supernatural disposition
• God’s essence is infinitely above the natural capacity of any created understanding
• Therefore, a supernatural disposition must be added to perfect the created intellect

Two Meanings of “Light”

• In sensible vision: light makes the medium transparent so color can be perceived
• In intellectual vision: the light of glory is a supernatural perfection of the understanding itself, not a transparent medium

The Light of Glory as Perfection, Not Medium

• The light of glory is NOT an intermediary (medium) through which God is seen
• Rather, it is an enhancement of the intellect’s own power—like how a habit of geometry strengthens the mind to understand geometric truths
• God is seen in himself, not through the light; the light enables the seeing
• This does not prevent immediate vision of God; just as knowledge of geometry doesn’t obscure perception of the triangle

Differential Perfection in the Beatific Vision (Article 6) #

The Question: Do all blessed souls see God equally perfectly?

The Answer: No. While all see God through his essence (not through created likenesses), they see him with different degrees of perfection based on their participation in the light of glory.

Why Not Through Likenesses?

• A more perfect likeness of something leads to clearer knowledge (e.g., a definition of “square” versus a vague notion)
• But the beatific vision is NOT through likenesses
• Therefore, differential clarity cannot come from different likenesses of God
• It must come from different measures of intellectual power

The Determining Factor: Charity

• The degree of charity (love of God) determines the measure of light of glory received
• Where there is more charity, there is more desire, which makes the soul apt and prepared for reception of God
• Therefore: More charity → More light of glory → More perfect vision → Greater beatitude

The Paradox of Eternity and Satisfaction

• In this life, we can always understand God better than we do and love him more
• But in heaven, the blessed do NOT continually increase in understanding or love
• This is not a limitation but a perfection: the vision is eternal, not progressive
• Satisfaction is proportionate to capacity—like different-sized cups all being full

Key Arguments #

Against the Objection That Light is Unnecessary #

Objection: God is self-luminous (lux vera); why would another light be needed?

Response:

• God’s essence is infinitely understandable, but the created understanding is finite
• The light is needed not to make God understandable but to make the finite intellect powerful enough to understand the infinite
• Analogy: sensible light makes the medium transparent so perception can occur; the light of glory makes the intellect capable of receiving infinite being

Against the Objection That All See Equally #

Objection: “We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2); therefore all see him the same way

Response:

• This text determines the manner of vision “on the side of the thing seen”—God is seen as he truly is
• It does NOT determine the manner “on the side of the seeing subject”
• One person’s understanding can be more perfect than another’s while both understand the same thing correctly
• Analogy: two people hear Mozart; both hear it as it truly is, but one with better ears hears it more perfectly

Why Comprehension is Impossible (Article 7 preview) #

Principle: No creature can understand God as much as God understands himself, nor love God as much as God loves himself

Corollaries:

• No creature can understand God as much as he is understandable
• No creature can love God as much as he is lovable

Even in Heaven:

• The blessed will not continually increase in understanding of God
• In this life: we can always love God more; in heaven: the measure of love is proportionate to the capacity given
• This does not diminish beatitude because satisfaction is proportionate to the degree received

Important Definitions #

Lumen Gloriae (Light of Glory)

• A supernatural perfection or disposition added to the created understanding by divine grace
• Enables the finite intellect to receive the infinite divine essence as its intelligible form
• Not a created intermediary between knower and God, but an elevation of the intellect’s own power
• Proportionate to the degree of charity possessed by the soul

Forma Intelligibilis (Intelligible Form)

• The form by which the intellect understands
• In the beatific vision, God’s own essence becomes the intelligible form of the created understanding
• Requires the light of glory to be a suitable intelligible form for a finite mind

Dispositio (Disposition)

• A quality (first species of quality) that prepares a subject to receive a form
• Belongs to the first category of quality
• Example: heat disposes matter to receive the form of fire
• The light of glory is the supernatural disposition that enables the intellect to receive God as form

Dei Formis (of the divine form, deified)

• State of the blessed who become like God through possessing the light of glory
• They receive God’s essence as their intelligible form, making them participate in God’s mode of existence in some sense

Examples & Illustrations #

The Geometry Analogy #

When one acquires the habit of geometry, the mind becomes more powerful to understand triangles and circles. The habit doesn’t change what is being understood but enhances the power of the one understanding. Similarly, the light of glory strengthens the created intellect to understand God; it is a perfection of the power, not a change to the object.

The Body and Health Distinction #

A man and the health of a man are not the same thing. You can even say “a man is indisposed.” This shows how to distinguish between a disposition and that which has the disposition—a key distinction for understanding how the light of glory relates to the understanding.

The Receiving Fire Analogy #

When air is to receive the form of fire, it must be disposed by heat. When paper is to receive the form of fire, it must first be heated. The disposition makes the subject suitable for receiving the form. Similarly, the intellect must be disposed by the light of glory to receive God’s infinite essence as its form.

The Music of Mozart #

Berquist describes hearing Mozart in a car with no other mental demands, realizing the beauty and wishing to listen more often. This illustrates how understanding something as it truly is doesn’t prevent seeing it more perfectly—two listeners both hear Mozart truly, but one may appreciate it more deeply based on their capacity.

Sensible and Intelligible Light Compared #

• Sensible light: makes the medium transparent so color can act upon vision
• Intelligible light: a perfection of the understanding itself, making it capable of receiving intelligible forms
• Both are “lights” in an analogous sense

The Marriage Analogy #

Just as bodily marriage unites persons at their surfaces (bodies externally meeting), the spiritual marriage of God and the soul in the beatific vision is far more intimate—God is within the understanding itself as the form by which it understands. The more a creature loves God, the more God unites that creature to himself in the beatific vision.

Notable Quotes #

“In your light we shall see light” (Psalm 35:10)

• The light illuminate is the light of glory; the light we see is God himself
• Two lights: the disposition enabling vision, and God’s essence seen

“When he appears, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)

• Berquist emphasizes: to see God as he is requires becoming like God through the light of glory
• Vision of God transforms the seer into conformity with what is seen

“No creature can understand God as much as God understands himself”

• A fundamental principle establishing the impossibility of comprehensive knowledge of God for finite creatures

“Contemplating God, his whole mind… fails to know him as much as he’s knowable and fails to love him as much as he’s lovable”

• From Aquinas’s prayer Adoro Te Devote
• Expresses the infinite disproportion between God’s knowability and any creature’s knowledge

“Everything that is raised up to something above its nature requires a disposition above its nature”

• The principle justifying the necessity of the light of glory
• A fundamental metaphysical principle of the Thomistic system

Questions Addressed #

Article 5: Is Created Light Necessary for Seeing God? #

Main Objections:

1. God is self-luminous light; why would another light be needed?
2. If God is seen through a created light (as medium), he is not seen through his own essence
3. If created light makes God visible, it could be natural to some creature, eliminating the need for grace

Aquinas’s Resolution:

• The light of glory is NOT required to make God understandable (God is infinitely intelligible already)
• It IS required to elevate the created understanding’s power to receive God’s infinite essence
• The light perfects the intellect itself, not God; it is not a medium but a disposition
• This allows for immediate vision of God through his essence while acknowledging the infinite disproportion between Creator and creature

Article 6: Do All Blessed Souls See God Equally Perfectly? #

Main Objections:

1. We shall see him “as he is”; therefore all see him in one way
2. Augustine: one cannot understand one thing more than another; all seeing God understand the divine essence equally
3. If eternal life consists of vision of God and all see equally, all should be equal; but Scripture says souls differ in clarity (1 Corinthians 15:41)

Aquinas’s Resolution:

• All see God through his essence, not through created likenesses
• Differential perfection comes from different degrees of intellectual power through the light of glory
• This power varies proportionately to charity
• The adverb “as he is” (sicut est) determines the manner on the side of the object (God’s being itself is seen), not on the side of the knower (some know more perfectly than others)
• Different measures of the light of glory, proportionate to different measures of charity, produce different degrees of perfect beatitude

Key Philosophical Principles #

Receptivity According to Mode of Receiver

• “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver”
• Different creatures receive God with different degrees of perfection based on their intellectual capacity, perfected by the light of glory

Proportion Between Form and Subject

• There must be a ratio between the form and the subject receiving it
• God’s essence, though infinitely intelligible, requires the light of glory to be a proportionate intelligible form for the finite intellect

Charity as Measure of Grace

• The degree of charity directly determines the measure of the light of glory
• Therefore, moral growth in this life through charity directly affects the degree of beatitude in the next
• This connects virtue ethics, grace, and eschatology

Pedagogical Observations #

Berquist emphasizes the difficulty of transcending imagination when thinking about immaterial realities. He notes that even educated people struggle to conceive of God as bodiless. He also illustrates how to teach abstract philosophical concepts to those without formal training—using concrete analogies (dog, cat, health, size) to distinguish between substance, quantity, and quality.

The lecture demonstrates Aquinas’s method of resolving apparent contradictions in Scripture and the Fathers through careful distinction of senses of key terms (light, seeing, comprehension). This is central to Thomistic theology and philosophical method.