Niematerialny charakter poznania anielskiego w ujęciu św. Tomasza z Akwinu
Journal Title: Przegląd Tomistyczny - Year 2015, Vol 0, Issue
Abstract
This article concerns two main topics of Saint Thomas’ conception of angelic cognition: the problem of angelic intellectual power and angelic knowledge of individual material substances. These problems are concerned with the aspect of the new idea of angelic nature, which, according to Aquinas, is absolutely immaterial. Saint Thomas refuted the hylomorphic claims of his predecessors, in which separate substances are composed of form and intellectual matter, by introducing his metaphysics of the act of being (ipsum esse). The composition of the act of being and essence in angelic nature shows the differences between angels and God (who alone is the pure act of being) and between the angels themselves. Th is makes claims about the presence of intellectual matter in the nature of angels refutable. Aquinas consequently uses the methodological scheme of substance, powers and operations, which he acquired from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Therefore, his claims about the nature of angels play an important role in resolving the problems of angelic cognition. Saint Thomas shows that, in angelic nature, there is no necessity to divide the intellect into passive and active. Angels have only one intellect, which relies only on the innate species given by God at the moment of their creation. These species in the angelic intellect have a different nature than those present in the intellect of man. They are not acquired from material beings through abstraction; thus, an angel does not need to have an active intellect. While Saint Bonaventure, like other thirteenth century scholars, claimed that the species in the angelic intellect are just like the species in the intellect of man, but more perfect, Saint Thomas considers them in their likeness with the perfect knowledge of God. In this way, he is able to explain why they can provide true and exact knowledge about individual material beings. This new perspective in which Aquinas considers angelic knowledge is possible thanks to the previous approach to angelic nature as absolutely immaterial.
Authors and Affiliations
Tomasz Stępień
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP191241
- DOI -
- Views 85
- Downloads 0
The Medieval Waldensian Sermons
The paper presents the ongoing project of editing and publishing medieval Waldensian sermons, which is a corpus of nearly 200 texts written in several variants of medieval Occitan. The texts are preserved in manuscripts...
Bartłomiej z Jasła i czeska devotio moderna w Krakowie. Kazanie Hoc epulum comedas na Wielki Czwartek
The article concerns Bartholomew of Jasło’s sermon on the Holy Communion which was probably delivered during the Maundy Thursday mass in 1393 in Kraków. The first part of this research provides a historical and doctrina...
O dwóch rękopisach Jana Sachsa z Norymbergi w Krakowie
Der im 15. Jahrhundert (ca 1400–1465) lebende Johannes Sachs von Nürnberg war sein ganzes akademisches Leben lang mit der Universität Wien eng verbunden. Zunächst als Student, später als Professor an der Philosophischen...
Wykłady wstępne (principia) filozofii i teologii ze szkół dominikanów wrocławskich na przykładzie tekstów z rękopisu I Q 386 Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej we Wrocławiu
The manuscript I Q 386 from the University Library in Wrocław is a typical example of a codex of a Dominican scholar from the mid-15th century. It was copied out in the 1440’s and belonged to Maciej Hayn, a friar of the...
Stephen Langton on the Harmony of Wills in Christ. A Critical Edition of Theological Question 61
This article offers a critical edition of the theological question De duabus uoluntatibus Christi (q. 61) by the Parisian theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton, a figure of the early thirteenth century. T...