The Creature Makes Itself: Aquinas, the De-idealization of the Eternal Ideas, and the Fate of the Individual
The Christian Platonic tradition affirmed that human flourishing involves conjunction with the realm of eternal divine ideas. The account developed by Thomas Aquinas in effect denied this, rendering ideas contingent, unknowable and impossible as direct objects of attainment. Although no longer ideal...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publ.
[2017]
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| In: |
Theological studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 78, Issue: 2, Pages: 412-434 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274
/ Eckhart Meister 1260-1328
/ Kierkegaard, Søren 1813-1855
/ Frank, Manfred 1945-
/ Human being
/ Nature
/ Identity
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The Christian Platonic tradition affirmed that human flourishing involves conjunction with the realm of eternal divine ideas. The account developed by Thomas Aquinas in effect denied this, rendering ideas contingent, unknowable and impossible as direct objects of attainment. Although no longer ideals for human aspiration, a role within spiritual or ethical striving might still be envisioned for such de-idealized ideas. Through discussions of Meister Eckhart, Kierkegaard and Manfred Frank, the essay outlines such a role: one’s idea in God operates to ontologically ground personal existence, deploying the human agent as an irreducible individual entity engaged in a hermeneutical labor of self-creation. |
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| ISSN: | 2169-1304 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0040563917698558 |