48. Seeing All Things in God and the Beatific Vision

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Sufficiency of God as Object #

• God in Himself contains and demonstrates all things, yet seeing God does not necessarily entail knowing all things
• One must comprehend God perfectly to know all things through Him, which created intellects cannot do

The Mirror Analogy #

• All things shine in God as in a mirror, yet seeing the mirror does not require seeing all things reflected in it
• The viewer must comprehend the mirror itself to see all things in it

Natural Desire and What We Know in God #

• The natural desire of rational creatures is to know those things pertaining to the perfection of understanding: species, general things, and their reasons
• In seeing God’s divine essence, all these things are seen
• Knowledge of other singular things (thoughts and doings of others) does not pertain to the perfection of created understanding
• Knowledge of non-existent but possible things also does not satisfy natural desire

The Satisfaction of Natural Desire in the Beatific Vision #

• When one sees God as He is, all things naturally desired to be known in this life are seen at once
• Augustine: miserable is the man who knows all creatures but not God; blessed is he who knows God even without knowing creatures; most blessed is he who knows both, but blessed chiefly for knowing God
• Knowledge of God alone is sufficient for blessedness; other knowledge is secondary

Things Seen Through Divine Essence, Not Created Likenesses #

• Article 9: Whether things seen in God are seen through likenesses
• All knowledge occurs by the knower being likened to the thing known
• Objection: Since knowledge requires likenesses, those seeing God must be informed by likenesses of creatures seen in Him
• Counter-objection: Likenesses cannot float around in God; things are seen in God as in an intelligible mirror
• Resolution: Things seen in the divine essence are seen not through separate likenesses but through the divine essence itself joined to the understanding
• The divine substance itself is a likeness of all things (as their cause), being the form adequate to knowing both God and other things

Two Modes of Knowing Things #

• Things can be known in themselves (through their own likenesses in the knower)
• Things can be known in what is like them (through the likenesses of other things)
• Example: a man is known in himself or known in his image
• Those seeing God through His essence know creatures in God, not through other likenesses but through the divine essence

Causality and Likeness #

• Every agent produces something like itself
• Since God made all things, all things have some likeness to God
• All things are contained in God’s power
• God knowing Himself fully knows everything else
• The more perfectly one sees God, the more one sees in Him all other things

Assimilation in the Beatific Vision #

• The understanding of one seeing God is assimilated to things seen in God insofar as it is united to the divine essence
• This provides a more perfect likeness than the likeness appropriate to the thing itself
• One thus knows creatures better in God than in themselves

Paul’s Vision and Multiple Likenesses #

• When Paul saw God face-to-face temporarily in rapture, he saw all things in God
• When that vision ceased, effects remained: multiple likenesses that could be recalled
• The imagination can form likenesses from preconceived species
• The understanding can form ratios (definitions) from preconceived species of genus and difference
• These likenesses formed after the rapture vision differ from the vision itself

Simultaneous Vision (Article 10) #

• Objection: Aristotle says one understands one thing while knowing many; therefore those seeing God cannot see many things at once
• Objection: Augustine says God moves the spiritual creature through time via understanding and affection; this implies succession
• Resolution: Those seeing God see all things not successively but at once (simul), together
• In this life we understand many things successively because we know them through diverse species
• The mind cannot be informed by multiple forms of the same kind simultaneously (as clay cannot be spherical and cubical at once)
• But when many things are understood through one form, they are understood together
• All things seen in God are known through the one essence of God, not through diverse likenesses
• Therefore all are seen together, not successively

Eternity vs. Time #

• The blessed participate in eternity, which has no before and after
• Augustine says in the Trinity that our thoughts “will not be in motion, going from these to those and coming back again”
• Rather, all knowledge will be seen with one sight at once, together (simul)
• Latin: conspect (looking with one sight)
• Greek: hama
• The temporal succession of understanding does not apply to those in eternity

Key Arguments #

For Seeing All Things in God (Article 8, Synthesis) #

1. God as object contains all things and demonstrates them
2. The natural desire to know pertains to knowledge of universal species and general things and their reasons
3. Whoever sees God’s divine essence sees all these things
4. Therefore, natural desire is satisfied in the beatific vision
5. However, natural desire does not extend to singular things or future contingents

Against Separate Likenesses in God (Article 9) #

1. All knowledge requires the knower to be like the thing known
2. Objection: Therefore those seeing God must be informed by likenesses of creatures
3. Counter: Likenesses cannot exist separately in God’s essence
4. Resolution: All things are known through the divine essence itself as their cause
5. The divine substance is the adequate form of knowledge for both God and creatures

For Simultaneous Vision (Article 10) #

1. In this life, we understand successively because we know through diverse species
2. When many things are understood through one form/species, they are understood together
3. All things in the beatific vision are understood through one divine essence
4. Therefore, all things are seen together (simul), not successively
5. The blessed participate in eternity, not time, so temporal succession does not apply

Important Definitions #

Simul (Together/At Once) #

The simultaneous, non-successive manner of understanding all things in God. From conspect: looking with one sight. This is possible because all things are known through the single divine essence rather than through diverse likenesses. The blessed see all things at once without temporal succession because they participate in eternity.

Species (plural: species) #

In knowing, the form or likeness by which a thing is known; the intelligible form that informs the knower. Multiple species mean successive understanding; one species can yield simultaneous understanding of multiple things.

Examples & Illustrations #

Personal Experience of Succession in Knowledge #

• Berquist reflects on his study: reading the Sentences, wanting to read Euclid and physics but unable to do all at once
• Listening to Mozart: one beautiful piece from many CDs, cannot hear them all simultaneously
• The Summa Contra Gentiles: 150 chapters cannot be given in one day; only bits at a time; must cycle through them
• Books on the Psalms and Gospels: can only read portions at a time before returning to others
• This circular, successive pattern is the condition of our current understanding

The Contrast with Heavenly Vision #

• When you see God as He is, all these things naturally desired are seen at once, not in succession
• No cycling through books, no coming back later; all together in one vision

Higher Angelic Knowledge #

• Angels, even with actual knowledge, have fewer ideas but see more
• They know by fewer concepts what we need many concepts to know
• Example: inscribing polygons in a circle (Euclid)
  • We need one idea for triangle, another for square, another for circle
  • As we inscribe polygons with more sides, they approach the circle as a limit
  • We can know polygon and circle together through the concept of the limit
  • Angels do this: one idea, multiple things understood distinctly

The Number Ten Analogy #

• If ten understood itself fully, it would understand nine, eight, seven, six, five, four
• Similarly, understanding God perfectly would include understanding all creatures as imperfect imitations
• Understanding human soul includes understanding animal soul and plant soul within it
• But like numbers nine through four in ten, they are not the whole—a “potential whole”

Knowledge of Others in Heaven #

• Berquist speculates: in heaven, curious desire to meet famous saints and clarify understanding
• “Did I understand that right, Thomas?”
• Desire to see Christ and Mary in flesh, and the saints
• Example: people asking if their dog will be in heaven
• Answer: if your dog or cat is necessary for your happiness in heaven, it will be there
• This is a true conditional statement even if the antecedent is false (conditional: “If candy is necessary for your happiness in heaven, there will be candy in heaven”)

Notable Quotes #

“Miserable the man who knows all those things, namely creatures, but who does not know you. Blessed also the one who knows you, even if he knows those other things to be ignorant of those. Who knows you and those things, not on account of that is more blessed, but on account of you only blessed.” — Augustine, Confessions, Book 5 (cited by Berquist)

This establishes the hierarchy: knowing God is the supreme good; knowing creatures is secondary; knowing God alone is sufficient for blessedness.

“If nevertheless God alone was seen, who is the fountain and the beginning of all being and truth, so would the natural desire of knowing be filled.” — Augustine

This emphasizes that the natural desire to know is satisfied fundamentally in knowing God.

“Those seeing God through his essence see those things which they see in the very essence of God, they do not see through some forms, but they see it through the very essence of God, right, joined to the understanding.” — Thomas Aquinas (cited by Berquist)

This captures the central distinction: not separate likenesses, but the divine essence itself as the form of knowledge.

Questions Addressed #

Q: Do those seeing God see all things? #

A: Not all things equally. They see all things pertaining to the perfection of understanding (universal species and their reasons), but not every singular thing or future contingent. The more perfectly one sees God, the more one sees in Him, but no creature comprehends God’s infinite power, so some things remain unseen.

Q: Through what means are things seen in God? #

A: Not through separate created likenesses in God. Rather, through the divine essence itself, which is present to the understanding as its intelligible form. The divine substance is a likeness of all things as their cause, so one form suffices to know all things in God.

Q: How can all things be seen at once when we understand only one thing at a time? #

A: In this life, we understand successively because we know through diverse species. In the beatific vision, all things are known through the one divine essence, so all are understood together. The blessed participate in eternity, not time, so temporal succession does not apply. One form/species can yield simultaneous understanding of multiple things.

Q: What is the state of understanding in the blessed—temporal or eternal? #

A: The blessed participate in eternity, which has no before and after. Their thoughts are not in motion from one thing to another and back again. All knowledge is seen with one sight at once, together (simul), without succession.

Connections #

To Prior Articles #

• Assumes the light of glory perfects the intellect to see God
• Builds on the discussion of what can be known in God
• Addresses objections from natural desire and the mirror analogy

To Augustine #

• Confessions, Book 5: the hierarchy of knowing (miserable/blessed/most blessed)
• On Genesis to the Letter, Book 12: God moving the spiritual creature through time
• On the Trinity, Book 12: the nature of thoughts in the beatific vision

To Aristotle #

• On the Soul, Book 3: understanding one thing while knowing many
• Principle that understanding follows the nature of the knower

To Scripture #

• Augustine’s interpretation of 1 John 3:2 (“we will see him as he is”)
• Implicit: the beatific vision satisfies the deepest human longing