Subject Area
Theology
Description
Saint Thomas Aquinas states that our “final and perfect happiness consists in nothing other than the vision of the Divine Essence.”1 Yet, he distinguishes between the essence and perfection of beatitude and argues that the perfect beatitude of man is fulfilled at the resurrection of the body, after which beatitude grows extensively in the soul of the blessed.2
Based on Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy of the body, his metaphysics of beatitude, and his treatment of charity, it is clear that the glorified body is necessary for the human person’s experience of the fullness of beatitude. How then, does the glorified body contribute to the extensive growth of beatitude in the soul and how will the diverse and unequal degrees of beatitude be experienced by the blessed? Aquinas’ metaphysics of love coupled with his principles of hylomorphism, fittingness (convenientia) and redounding (redundantia), generates his understanding of how this vision will redound in the glorified body and extensively increase beatitude in the soul. Determined by one’s quality of love and its effect of joy, the individual splendor of the blessed reflect their degrees of love and of joy and “add” extensively to the perfect beatitude attained in the intellectual vision.
Moreover, understanding the resurrection of the body as a testimony to the interpersonal character of the Triune God, Aquinas sees beatitude as an act in which one allows the self to be is our grasped by Him who is his ultimate end. Mary, in her eternal act of magnifying her Lord, perfect example of being ‘grasped by him’; her bodily assumption into heaven highlights the significance of the glorified body and showcases the extensive growth of beatitude in the soul; Mary as the one among the Blessed who, next to Christ, most radiantly reflects the glory of the Beatific Vision in her body, experiences the highest degree of ecstatic joy for all eternity.
1Thomas Aquinas. ST I-II, q.3, a. 8.
2Thomas Aquinas. ST I-II q. 4, a. 5, ad. 5
Publisher
Providence College
Date
Fall 11-7-2025
Type
Thesis
Format
Text
.pdf (text under image)
Language
English
