28. The Immortality of the Human Soul and Beatitude

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Soul’s Asymmetrical Existence #

• The human soul has a beginning (created at conception) but no end (immortal)
• This seems paradoxical: if something comes into being, shouldn’t it cease to be?
• Different reasons explain the beginning versus the end—the soul’s beginning derives from its creation; its immortality follows from its nature as an immaterial substance
• Aristotle’s position in Metaphysics XI: forms in matter have a beginning, but the human soul is excepted from having an end

Three Major Positions on the Soul #

1. Platonic view: The soul existed before the body and will exist after the body
2. Materialist view: The soul neither existed before the body nor will exist after
3. Aristotelian view: The soul did not exist before the body but will exist after the body
   • This third position seems least probable at first sight
   • A fourth possibility: the soul existed before the body but wears out over time (rejected)

Beatitude: Natural Powers vs. Divine Grace #

• Imperfect beatitude (achievable in this life): Can be acquired through man’s natural powers and virtue
• Perfect beatitude (vision of God’s essence): Exceeds all created nature and requires divine grace alone
• The key principle: created knowledge operates according to the mode of the knower’s substance; therefore no creature can naturally know God as He is in Himself

Can Higher Creatures (Angels) Confer Beatitude? #

• Against: Three objections argue that angels, being in act and capable of enlightening human understanding, should be able to make man blessed
• Thomas’s resolution: Beatitude exceeds created nature entirely; therefore only God can confer it
• Angels can illuminate human understanding regarding divine works but cannot impart the vision of God’s essence
• The distinction between natural being and intentional being is critical: a form existing imperfectly or only intentionally cannot communicate itself to another (e.g., color in the pupil of the eye cannot make other things white)

The Role of Creatures in Achieving Beatitude #

• Lower causes dispose toward perfection but do not induce the ultimate perfection
• Analogy: in sailing, the governing art commands; the shipbuilder makes the ship; the ship is used for sailing—each level prepares for the next, but only the captain achieves the end
• Creatures (and human works) can prepare and dispose the soul for beatitude but cannot efficiently cause it
• God alone as the First Agent achieves the conferral of beatitude

Key Arguments #

Against Natural Attainment of Beatitude #

• Scripture: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
• Authority in theology is stronger than reason—the argument from faith is more certain than argument from reason

For Natural Attainment of Beatitude (Objections) #

1. Nature does not fail in necessary things: If beatitude is necessary to man, he must be capable of achieving it
2. Man’s nobility: Man is more noble than irrational creatures; irrational creatures achieve their ends through natural powers; therefore man should achieve beatitude through natural powers
3. Perfect and imperfect operations: Since man can begin operations, he should be able to perfect them; imperfect and perfect operations of the same kind are caused by the same power

Thomas’s Resolutions #

1. On necessity: Nature does not fail in necessary things, but it gives man free will and reason to turn toward God—the necessary aid is the possibility of grace, not the possession of beatitude itself
2. On nobility: A nature capable of perfect good even with exterior aid is more perfect than a nature limited to imperfect good without aid (the analogy of health: better to achieve perfect health through medicine than only imperfect health without it)
3. On imperfect and perfect operations: These are operations of different species because the species of operation depends on its object. Imperfect beatitude (happiness through virtue in this life) is a different kind from perfect beatitude (vision of God’s essence); therefore what causes the one need not cause the other

Important Definitions #

Beatitude (Beatitudo) #

• A perfect and sufficient good that satisfies all desire
• Imperfect beatitude: Achievable in this life through virtue and contemplation (what Aristotle called happiness/eudaimonia)
• Perfect beatitude: Eternal vision of the divine essence; exceeds created nature entirely

The Light of Glory (Lumen Gloriae) #

• The form by which God elevates the human mind to see His essence
• Exists in God according to its perfect, natural being
• Exists in creatures imperfectly and only by participation (likeness)
• This form must be supplied by God; no creature can supply it

Intentional Being (Esse Intentionale) vs. Natural Being (Esse Naturale) #

• Intentional being: The way an object exists in the mind or in a medium (e.g., color as it appears in the pupil of the eye)
• Natural being: The way something exists in itself with its own proper nature
• A form existing only intentionally cannot communicate itself naturally to another thing (the color in the eye cannot make external objects white)

Examples & Illustrations #

The Paradox of the Soul’s Beginning and End #

• Berquist’s personal example: “I was born in January 18th, 1936… sitting in 1934, I wasn’t around… and yet my soul would go on forever”
• At first sight, this seems doubtful—how can something have a beginning but no end?
• Yet this is precisely Aristotle’s position and Thomas’s teaching

The Shoes Analogy (from Plato’s Phaedo) #

• Socrates argues: if a man wears out many pairs of shoes in his life, and the shoes eventually wear out, doesn’t the man who outlasts many shoes also outlast death?
• Simmias’s objection: a man wears out many pairs of shoes, but as he wears one pair out, he moves to another pair and slowly wears out himself
• Eventually, he wears out like the final pair of shoes—and thus wears out completely
• Point: The analogy fails; wearing-out of multiple objects doesn’t establish that the user also wears out

The Proportion of Natures (Health Analogy) #

• Better to achieve perfect health through medicine than imperfect health without it
• The man who takes pills morning and evening achieves superior health to the man who takes no medicine but has inferior health
• Similarly: a rational creature capable of perfect good (beatitude) even with divine aid is superior to a creature limited only to imperfect good without aid

The Chef and Assistant #

• The chef commands what is needed; the assistant prepares ingredients
• The chef makes the final dish; the assistant only disposes the materials
• Similarly, God achieves beatitude; creatures and human works only dispose toward it

The Hamburger Maker vs. the Mathematician #

• A simple person making hamburgers at McDonald’s needs no instruction and achieves an imperfect good
• A person learning geometry from Euclid needs help but achieves a more spiritual, intellectual good
• The latter is superior despite requiring exterior aid
• Connection to beatitude: Man is superior precisely because he can achieve perfect good (beatitude) even though he requires divine grace

The Teacher and Student #

• St. Joseph’s sisters taught Berquist to read and write (disposing him for higher learning)
• A Cirque taught him as an undergraduate
• Deconic, a more advanced teacher, answered his graduate questions
• Proper ordering: lower teachers dispose for what higher teachers accomplish

Notable Quotes #

“In your light we shall see light” (Psalm 36:9) God is both the object seen and the means by which we see Him

“I am who am” (Exodus 3:14) God’s self-existence contrasted with creatures’ dependence; created forms cannot adequately represent pure existence

“The Lord gives both grace and glory” (Psalm 84:11) Scripture affirms that beatitude comes from God alone, not from creatures

“Ubi humilitas, ibi sapientia” (“Where there is humility, there is wisdom”) Humility disposes the soul to recognize God as the source of all things and thus to seek divine wisdom

“Brevity is the soul of wit” Referenced in connection with the aphoristic style of the Book of Causes

Questions Addressed #

Question 5, Article 1: Can Man Achieve Beatitude Through Natural Powers? #

Objections:

• Nature does not fail in necessary things; beatitude is necessary; therefore man must be capable of it
• Man is more noble than irrational creatures, who achieve their ends naturally; therefore man should achieve beatitude naturally
• Beatitude is a perfect operation; man can begin operations; what begins operations should perfect them

Thomas’s Answer:

• Man is capable of imperfect beatitude through virtue in this life
• Man is not capable of perfect beatitude (vision of God’s essence) through natural powers alone
• God provides the necessary aid through grace, not through natural endowment
• Man’s superiority lies in being capable of perfect good, even if exterior aid is required

Question 5, Article 6: Can an Angel Make Man Blessed? #

Objections:

• There is an order of parts of the universe to each other, and this order exists for the sake of the order of the whole universe to God
• Angels are higher creatures in act; what is in act reduces potency to act (fire makes water hot)
• Angels can enlighten human understanding; therefore they should be able to make man blessed

Thomas’s Answer:

• Beatitude exceeds all created nature and can only be conferred by God
• A form existing imperfectly (as beatitude exists even in angels) cannot communicate itself naturally to another
• Angels can dispose man toward beatitude and illuminate him regarding divine matters, but cannot impart the vision of God
• Lower causes prepare; only the First Cause achieves the ultimate end